To Walk With You
by MrAzazael
Summary: Set a few hours after the battle with Pein. Naruto is not only coming to terms with the progress he has made, he's also coming to terms with Hinata's confession. Whilst he is battling with his own feelings, Sakura can't believe how much she has come to rely on and care for the blond goofball. But it can't be love... can it? Naruto has to choose... NaruHina/NaruSaku (more NaruHina)
1. Chapter 1 - Three Words

**This story is set just after the Pein arc. In particular, after Hinata has confessed her love for Naruto. Naruto unsure of how to react and what to do is in his apartment recovering from fighting Pein – just hours before – and is now contemplating his options and the truth of Hinata's words…**

I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shipudden. They both belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

The sensation of hot, steaming water running down the skin of the 16 year old ninja was the most calming thing the young man had felt that day. It had indeed been a long day. The multiple beatings and contusions he had received from Pein today had made his body tender but the nine tailed demon fox (a.k.a. the Kyuubi) inside of him took care of his external injuries.

Ever since he could remember, it had always been that way. He would dive into danger and receive a ridiculous amount of punishment… and the demon fox would heal him.

Besides, the impact of the countless hits and the general physical pain that he experienced could not compare to another kind of pain he was feeling right now.

The past few weeks had been an emotional rollercoaster for Naruto. Finding out about the death of Jiraiya – his beloved Father/Grandfather figure – and having to face the man who carried Jiraiya's blood on his hands was a really demanding emotional experience. If you also factored in the fact he was constantly being hunted by the Akatsuki (over the Kyuubi sealed within him) and his ongoing search for his long lost friend Sasuke, in a nutshell… Naruto was not in the best emotional state.

His body could heal in a matter of seconds, but his heart… well… that was a different matter and recently… it had taken a real beat down.

The biggest problem of all was the matter of Hinata Hyuga. Ever since she confessed her feelings to Naruto he could not think of a reply that would do justice to how he felt. He was a brewing cauldron of mixed emotions. He felt horrible for not acknowledging or reciprocating her feelings, being so offhand and oblivious towards her in the past. But he also felt overjoyed to know that in this life there was someone that actually loved him (apart from his parents, who died years ago – but met for the first time a few hours ago in his body… it is a long story which is clearly explained in the original storyline).

To think that the young man who perfected and surpassed the legendary 'Rasengan' technique left to him by his father, the young man who took on the demon of the mist village at the age of 12 and beat his prized apprentice, the young man who was known for his great courage and his unyielding spirit… could not bring himself to face his greatest adversary to date; his feelings.

You see, Hinata uttered three words that changed the whole landscape of Naruto's world. Three words that caused him to think back to the past. When he thought hard enough, Naruto could remember - when he was younger - he would notice a shadow or movement in the corner of his eye and as soon as he would turn towards the source of the movement, a sharp, quick "squeak" and the sound of shuffling feet would be heard.

The hurried movement – which was taken to be feet – would then be followed by quiet and stillness before he would continue with his day. It was almost as if, a guardian angel was there watching him - when everyone else would not - monitoring his progress through life.

The more he thought about it, the more Hinata's previous actions seemed to be confirmed by those three words she said.

During the Chuunin exams, Sakura and Rock Lee both pointed out that Hinata's actions had a strong likeness to Naruto's. She would not give in to Neji's sharp and piercing words and did her best to fight destiny whilst living up to Naruto's expectations.

In fact, after she locked eyes with Neji and said to him - louder than she had ever spoken before – "I'm not going to take back my words… that's my way of the ninja" he could then distinctly remember Hinata looking up at him. He could remember the intensity of her gaze and the direct eye contact he received – something that she had routinely avoided for years – and then (after adopting his nindo as her own) she smiled at him. A smile that had so many emotions locked inside of it and all it needed was Naruto. All it need was his emotion to unlock the true feelings of that smile; all it needed Naruto's acknowledgement.

He used to believe that she was some "dark-haired weirdo" but looking back at her shyness around him and the sudden outbreaks of redness on her face whenever he was around, he started to realise how much of a fool he was for not noticing in the past that Hinata had loved him. The ever timid and constantly flushed Hinata was not really a nervous "dark–haired weirdo", she was simply a love-struck admirer of Naruto Uzumaki.

Those three words that finally escaped her mouth was absolute proof of her irrevocable feelings for him. Looking back at the past and the changes that Hinata had made in herself - from being beaten within an inch of her life by Neji at the Chuunin exams to being blasted into the air by Pein - Naruto knew that she had been inspired by something or someone important and if he were to believe her words, the person responsible for the changes in Hinata… was himself.

After witnessing Pein blast her beaten body high into the air today and hearing the sickening 'crunch' it made as it impacted with the Earth, Naruto could not imagine a world without her. He knew that Hinata and himself both truly understood the meaning behind those three words and he was fairly sure that he felt the same way about her – deep inside.

Naruto Uzumaki knew that those three words had not only saved the village or his life, it had saved his heart. Those three words galvanised something new in Naruto. Something that he had longed his long time crush Sakura Haruno to feel for him…

LOVE.

He knew that deep inside, something was stirring…

"I think I love you too Hinata" Naruto said out loud before he turned off the shower. "...I think I do". He finished before he used his towel to dry himself up exit the bathroom.

After getting dressed and brushing his teeth he went to his kitchen to make his usual breakfast of Ramen.

Just when he was getting up to put his clean plate into the sink, he heard a knock at his door.

"NARUTOOO-KUN! OPEN UP YOUR DOOR! IT'S ME SAKURA!"

Naruto stopped in his tracks. His long time crush Sakura was at his door. All of his old feelings were resurfacing and he was torn. He was just starting to sort out his emotions and how he felt and now, the biggest possible spanner in the works was standing outside his doorway. The only thing that could possibly resurrect his uncertainty was outside his apartment. He felt guilty at the fact that he was sure he still liked Sakura but unsure if he loved Hinata.

"Sakura-chan…" Naruto said quietly to himself before hearing Sakura shout again,

"NARUTOOOOOOOO! OPEN THE DAMN DOOR!" this time neglecting the honorific suffix.

Slowly and slightly unsteadily, he walked towards the door…

* * *

**Author's Note**

Thank you to everyone who has read this. This is my first attempt at writing a story... EVER! I felt that I wanted to do something that would allow me to channel my creative energies - especially after finishing my January AS exams - and so the idea for "To Walk With You" came to my head.

I didn't originally intend for this fanfic to have such an emotional direction and I really hate corny and "soppy" love stories... but I felt that if I wanted to write a NaruHina/NaruSaku fanfic then inevitably the story would have to have some of these elements. I have a general plan for this fan fic and later on, hopefully I convey the emotion and action in an exciting way. But don't worry, it will have a bit of everything and I hope you will enjoy it.

I won't lie to you all, writing for me is a hobby and I tend to get distracted easily. I'm always thinking of new plots and stories so updates will be irregular, however I will try to keep on top of things. This means that chapters won't be 3000 words long - sorry if you love long chapters.

Hopefully updates will take no longer than 3 weeks (that is the worst case scenario). Chapter 2 will be up and its going to be the discussion between Naruto and Sakura.

Oh, and please let me know what you think about the current manga chapters, it would be nice to discuss with others just to get the general opinion on Kishi's plot. Like, favourite, review, place on your watch list and anything else.

It would mean a lot and again...

THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ CHAPTER 1 OF "To Walk With You"... Have a nice day!


	2. Chapter 2 - Another Confession

**Authors Note; I just received my FIRST EVER REVIEW from a lovely "icecreamsweet 123". It really made my day and I thought I'd give you a mention because you've convinced me to continue the story (and it's nice to know that you read my authors note at the end of chapter 1). I'd also like to mention "Psycho G". I loved your review. Constructive and detailed. **

**Oh, and one more thing. A guest reviewer raised a good point about the way Sakura addresses Naruto. I may have made a mistake in adding the "kun" part as she rarely addresses him as "Naruto-kun" but for the purposes of my story I figured that if she was going to say something quite personal and touching, she would use the honorific suffix. I'm not really an expert with the use of Japanese suffixes so help like that is appreciated. Thank you.**

**I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shipudden. All rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

**ON WITH THE STORY!**

_**After hearing Sakura knock at his door Naruto slowly walked towards the door…**_

Naruto opened the door of his apartment and saw his long time team 7 member, Sakura Haruno, at his door. She wore an unusual expression on her face. Something he had never seen before. He felt it was an expression that he felt she would reserve for someone very dear to her – yet... it was being used on him… It was almost as if ,for the first time, she saw him as someone important. The expression on her face was seemed to be tainted slightly by anger – at the fact she had to wait so long for him to open the door - but it still possesed the genuine affection. He couldn't help but always be a bit awkward in her presence and this was clearly shown in the goofy and leering grin he made at her.

From Sakura's view point, Naruto looked different. He no longer looked like the blond goofball who was incapable of being the man she longed for… he looked like the man who could give her everything she wanted. He looked like someone who could fill the Sasuke shaped hole within her…

"NO!" Inner Sakura said. "That's not fair! Naruto can't just be your second choice. He can't be seen as a REPLACEMENT for Sasuke. Think about it Sakura… after all these years of ignoring him you suddenly see how great he has become AFTER he has beaten Pein... don't you think it would send a bad kind of message not only to the village… but to Naruto. You can't just suddenly acknowledge him now he's respected." Inner Sakura said with venom.

"Remember how you treated him before, when no one would care for him? You too were part of the bodiless mob that caused Naruto such pain." Inner Sakura continued, "You can't suddenly pander to him after all of the grief you let him suffer alone!" Inner Sakura concluded, readying herself for another line of speech.

Sakura was truly shocked by Inner Sakura's words, but she didn't let it show.

"Besides…" Inner Sakura continued "That's not the real reason we're here…" She finished with what sounded like a tinge of regret.

Sakura couldn't help but agree with her inner voice. The truth that resonated from her inner voice really threw her… but she still couldn't stop the cauldron of emotion - for Naruto - within her brewing.

It was truly ironic that the only reason she came to his apartment was to admit her love for Naruto in order to get him to give up his mission on saving Sasuke Uchiha. But she she knew in her heart that she did actually have genuine feelings for him...

Snapping out of her thought process, she noticed that she was wearing a smile.

A smile aimed at… NARUTO?! She couldn't believe that she had unconsciously let Naruto see her appreciation of him.

She immediately became annoyed at herself. She then also noticed that Naruto had a slightly perverted look on his face… and it was aimed at her.

Soon, the next thing Naruto remembered was Sakura pulling out her fist and cocking it backwards (like an archer pulling back a bow) before unleashing her charged punch at Naruto's head. As usual, Naruto cowered and tried to move out of the way but unusually…

There was no connection with his head. Instead, he looked up and saw her fist inches away from his skull… completely still… but what was more shocking was the slightly pained expression that flickered over her face for an instant… before disappearing as if it was never even there.

"Sakura-chan... You… stopped…?" Naruto said in clear shock.

Sakura drew her fist back and said "You're a hero, to the village… and to me…" whilst lightly blushing. "I don't want to hit you. I want to talk to you. Can I come inside Naruto?" Sakura said faintly.

Visibly shocked, Naruto just nodded his head. He stepped out of the way and allowed her to enter his domain.

As soon as Sakura stepped into his small apartment, she noticed the mountain of ramen cups in his sink, clothes over the floor and a pack of cards on his small coffee table. She thought to herself;

"A hero shouldn't have to live like this… All of his life he's been stuck alone in these conditions… Naruto deserves better… I want to giv-"

"SO!" Naruto exclaimed with his ever goofy grin - interrupting Sakura's thought process "What can I do for you?" He grinned.

"IDIOT!" Sakura exclaimed! "You interrupted my thoughts! …Anyway, those don't matter now. The reason I came here Naruto is because I want to get something off of my chest."

From the expression on her face, Naruto knew that it was something serious so he motioned to the two chairs around the coffee table.

"We've been teammates for a long time Naruto… a very long time. Sasuke's gone now and I'm honestly not sure when he will come back…" Sakura said in a grim voice.

They both fell silent at this point as the memories of Sasuke hurt them more than Pein, the Akatsuki or Orochimaru ever could.

For Naruto, it was his first true bond with someone who was his peer. They were not only rivals, Sasuke was like his brother his best friend. To have finally made a bond after years of searching and then to have had it cruelly ripped away from him hurt more than anything.

For Sakura, years of admiration and infatuation directed at the young prodigy were simply dismissed and that hurt a lot as well.

It always made the world feel slightly colder and emptier for them whenever Sasuke was mentioned; the silence was a physical representation of that pain.

Sakura - in an attempt to fill the empty void – continued with her speech.

"… but the way I see things Naruto, we need to look forward to the future." At this point, she decided to place her hands over Naruto's.

"… and if we're talking about the future then I know one thing. You'll be a part of it; as you have always been a part of everything else".

Naruto could not speak. His silence was as much of a surprise to him as it was to Sakura.

"Naruto…"she continued, ignoring his shocked silence "Sasuke has never acknowledged me in the past… but you have… In fact you have done more than acknowledge me, you've put your life on the line for me countless times… but Sasuke couldn't even be bothered to look at me. You've been my rock and without you I would probably be dead by now. During the Chuunin exams, Gaara would have killed me if you hadn't appeared. Sasuke just stood there – frozen – but you… you saved me… in so many more ways than you'll ever know…

Naruto…

I think I may love you…

So you don't need to go after Sasuke anymore for me..." she continued "… because I don't want him anymore, I want you…" She finished, smiling at him, putting as much emotion into the smile as she could.

She looked at Naruto expectantly, waiting for a response. When he finally gathered his thoughts enough to process that Sakura just confessed her love for him he stuttered…

"W-w-wait a minute… YOU LOVE ME?!" Naruto exclaimed.

"IDIOT! Didn't you hear me clearly?! Weren't you listening?!" Sakura cried with obvious anger on her face.

"N-no! I heard you clearly… but I can't believe that you really meant that. How can you stop loving Sasuke after all you have said and done over the years?! How can you give up just like that?!" Naruto said, with piercing conviction.

Sakura froze. She did not expect Naruto to react like that. She assumed that after all these years of him loving her, he would just run over to her and hug her… or maybe more... but the next thing she heard was…

"Sakura-chan… I hate people who lie to themselves."

Those words pierced harder than Sasuke's abandonment ever could. The intense look Naruto was giving her made her knees weak and her heart palpitate. She knew herself that she didn't truly love Naruto the way she loved Sasuke, but she was extremely fond of him – almost close to falling for him – and if Sasuke did not exist…

Who knows…

She may have truly meant her previous words.

But she didn't want him to hurt anymore due to Sasuke and so, she came to the conclusion that this lie would be the perfect way to prevent anymore suffering. However, she did not expect Naruto to see through her deception.

If Sakura was going to be brutally honest with herself, she was not sure who she was deceiving anymore. Ever since Naruto came back to the village she had been feeling something slightly stronger than friendship for him... but she also knew that she still truly desired Sasuke.

Regardless, Naruto was here now and she did not want to see him go away from her permanently... she knew - deep down - that she would do whatever was necessary to keep him here with her.

"Are you saying that I'm… lying to myself?" She replied, clearly taken aback.

"Well…" she continued "If you don't care about me the way I finally care about you then just say so." She said looking at him with genuine confusion and hurt.

"It's not that Sakura-chan." Naruto said "It's just that Konoha is in the middle of recovery from Pein's attack and a skilled medical ninja like you – who is most needed by the village right now – has decided to leave your duties and jobs as a medical ninja… just to tell me that you love me?" He finished.

Sakura was seething at this point as somewhere inside her, she was deeply hurt. Although she didn't want to acknowledge it, there was some truth to her words to Naruto. In a voice shaking with anger she repeated Naruto's words.

"… 'JUST to tell you'…?" Sakura screamed.

"DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH IT TOOK FOR ME TO COME HERE AND TELL YOU THAT?!" She continued.

OF COURSE I'D COME HERE TO TELL YOU THAT" She roared "So many people are after you and you're putting yourself in harm's way just to save Sasuke… who couldn't care less about you or I right now…" Sakura continued to scream, fighting the tears that were threatening to pour down her face.

"Look, I know you may be taken back by my 'sudden' change, but… YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT I'M FEELING! She cried.

Naruto shocked by these words was just about to reply when a soft knock came from the door; interrupting the conversation. Sakura looked at Naruto before he went to open the door.

As soon as he opened the door a pair of pupil-less, lavender eyes - filled with anxiety - met his…

"Hello Naruto-kun!" Hinata Hyuga smiled nervously…

* * *

**Author's note: Final notice of this chapter. I'm DESPERATELY TRYING TO GET THE PERMISSIONS FOR A COVER PICTURE THAT WOULD BE PERFECT FOR THIS STORY. It's a picture of Naruto at Ichiraku's eating whilst Sakura and Hinata are both present watching him. (you can see it if you type in NaruSaku Vs NaruHina on Google). If anyone knows how I can get the permissions for this picture... PLEASE inbox me or leave the details in a review.**

**Like, favourite (if you think its good enough), put this on your alert list. Whatever helps get the word out.**

**Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE SUPPORT! :D**

**P.s. Over 100 hits... YAAAY! Aha!**

**See you in Chapter 3!**


	3. Chapter 3 - Pressing Matters

**I figured that I would shout out to 5 – 6 reviewers at the top of each chapter as you truly motivate me. I'll make authors notes at the bottom of the chapter. **

**Firstly, Peacemaker 01 (appreciation is always appreciated), **

**yuuki-baka (it's great to see that you like it), **

**Starcup (I may give that song a listen and I'm not really a pro – I just take pride in what I do I guess), **

**lancecomwar (you raise an interesting point, I guess I overlooked that detail, but maybe we can assume that Naruto and Pein moved to that empty plane of land before the rest of Konoha got destroyed. Remember, not all of Konoha was destroyed , as Iruka and the women and children made it safe areas of the village – albeit those areas were underground) and last but not least, **

**Psycho G (just been absolutely awesome with the reviews and you bring up several good points – also people, check out his work as it is quite good and in my honest opinion, he is a good professional).**

**My story starts to take a different path to the canon at this point.**

**As I always say…**

**ON WITH THE STORY!**

Of all the possible things that could have possibly happened, Naruto had sincerely hoped that this would not have been this one. Hinata Hyuga, one of the causes of Naruto Uzumaki's current confusion was right in front of him.

"Hey Hinata… I'm sorry, now's a really bad time." In his head, he was kicking himself at passing time to spend with Hinata, but he couldn't discuss matters right now with Sakura at his door.

"If you want I can meet you in an hour somewhere else." Naruto said. He didn't want both causes of his confusion to be in the room together. Besides, his apartment was a mess.

"Oh…" Hinata said, slightly upset. "N-Not to worry N-Naruto-kun… I came t-to give you a message."

Hinata noticed the teary eyed Sakura by the coffee table in Naruto's sitting room (lounge).

"Hello, Sakura-san" Hinata said enthusiastically. "I hope I didn't interrupt anything" She said timidly.

"No. You didn't…" Sakura said emotionlessly. "In fact I was just leaving. So you're free to have Naruto." Sakura picked up her coat and walked towards the door, unsure whether she meant for that to come out as a double-entendre.

"Oh no, it's fine, I just have a message from Danzo-sama for Naruto-kun. He wants to see you, I think it may be a mission. In fact, I've been summoned as well." She said smiling at Naruto. "So have you Sakura-san." Hinata added whilst handing Naruto the official mission summoning scroll.

"Wait a minute" Naruto said, unable to hide the shock in his voice, "Danzo –'SAMA'?! "Why do we have a message from Danzo?" Naruto said loudly. His anger at being summoned by Danzo clouded out the fact that he would possibly be on a mission with Sakura and Hinata.

"Didn't you know" Hinata said in a matter of fact manner, "Danzo-sama is the new Hokage. A vote was taken by the elders – due to Tsunade-sama's absence – and they came to the conclusion that Danzo would be the right man for the job." She finished.

Naruto and Sakura looked at the Hyuga girl as if she had just uttered her first ever swear word. Hinata blushed under their intense gaze.

"WHAT ABOUT SHIKAMARU'S DAD OR KAKASHI-SENSEI?!" Sakura exclaimed "WHY WEREN'T THEY CHOSEN?!"

"I honestly don't know. It seems I don't know a lot of things recently." Hinata said staring at Sakura before glancing at Naruto and then at the floor. All the while the hot flush across her face never left.

"I'll see you both later at the Hokage tower." Hinata said. "See you soon Naruto-kun." She said slightly blushing.

Too afraid to bring up her words during the fight with Pein and also wondering what Sakura meant by shouting at Naruto "YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT I'M FEELING!" – just before she arrived – she left Naruto's apartment.

To be honest, Hinata had no direct problem with Sakura Haruno, but she extremely disliked the way Sakura treated Naruto. She was either constantly shouting at him or hitting him (in some cases, both at the same time).

It always puzzled her how team 7 still functioned when one element of the team was always so mean to the other. Even after Naruto saved the village from Pein and returned, the first thing Sakura did was viciously hit him on the head. The already weakened Naruto was being welcomed by her fist instead of her medical treatment. Sure, she did it because he made her worry so much and she did it out of care but…

It wasn't right.

Hinata knew that she could never lay a hand on Naruto to hurt him.

"I could treat him so much better" She thought to herself.

"If only he could see that too…"

Pondering about the events that transpired, she made her way back to the Hyuga estate before she would eventually meet Naruto and Sakura at the Hokage's office.

"I'll see you later as well Naruto" Sakura said without making eye contact.

Before she closed the door she stopped and without turning back she said "Just think about what I said… all right Naruto?"

With that she left.

Naruto sat down – cross legged – on his partially visible, frog styled rug, mulling over the events of today.

After ten minutes of private thought (mostly about Hinata and Sakura), he left his apartment and went out to clear his head before he would have to go to the Hokage tower.

He went to the one place he would always go to when he wanted to think; the Hokage monument. It was usually a routine visit for him but today, it felt unusually surreal. Even before he found out just hours ago that one of the heads on the monument was his father… he knew that if he ever wanted to deal with a problem or make a tough decision, this would be the place he would come to. Every time he came here in the past to find solace or deal with life, he never once thought that the fourth head on the rock plinth was actually looking out for him.

He stood at the edge of the plinth, remembering his father's word…

"You'll figure it out someday… I know you can do it"

Naruto looked out towards the distance. It was clear that he couldn't truly trust Sakura's words. No matter how much (or how little) he wanted to. Sure, they had been teammates for years and sure enough he had saved her as many times as she recounted… but her confession came at an awkward and suspicious time.

He had so many questions that he needed an answer to.

Why now? Why had she decided now was the correct time to announce her affections? What about all of her old feelings for Sasuke?...

What about Hinata?...

He knew that these questions would have to be answered another time and so, made his way to the Hokage's office.

_**At the Hokage's office, Lady Tsunade is currently in a coma due to Pein so as the sixth Hokage; it is up to Danzo Shimura to give out the missions – before he heads to the Kages summit. He is in the middle of briefing Naruto, Sakura and Hinata on their mission.**_

"Remember, the aim of the mission is to subdue the enemy but more importantly, to capture intelligence on Orochimaru's base. Therefore stealth is paramount. Do you all understand? In particular, do you understand Naruto?" Danzo said with an air of disapproval.

"Yes, Danzo-sama!" Three junior ninja chorused in unison with Naruto being a little less respectful and audible than the rest.

"One more thing…" Danzo said with a hint of satisfaction. "Naruto, your teammates know about this but I'll repeat this just to clarify to you… Sasuke Uchiha has been placed with a 'kill on site' order…"

Sakura and Hinata just looked down to the ground. Naruto looked at Sakura (thinking about the motives of her previous confession) before roaring at Danzo:

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!"

"…failure to comply" Danzo continued as if he hadn't heard anything "will result in serious punishment! Do I make myself clear?" Danzo finished.

"NO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS AND I WON'T FOLLOW THIS STUPID ORDER!" Naruto bellowed.

"Jinchuuriki…" Danzo spat "You're lucky enough to even be allowed to go out of the village! I can do whatever I feel is for the benefit of the village… if you choose not to follow my orders I will have you followed by an ANBU unit for the rest of your life and trust me… they will never ever let you leave the village. As to who would replace you for missions in such an event, I'm sure Sai will be more than happy." Danzo said with intense venom. (Danzo was still oblivious to Sai's change in nature)

Naruto knew that he needed his freedom to continue his search for Sasuke and so he bit his tongue, gave Danzo the fiercest glare and thought of every possible curse that ever existed in his mind.

"Oh, and the final thing, seeing as Yamato–san and Kakashi–san are needed by the village for their unique skills, I have assigned another jounin to lead this mission.

At that moment, Anko Mitarashi walked through the door.

"Danzo-sama, can I have the team now?" Anko said with disdain.

"Yes Anko. I was just finishing informing the team and letting them know that you are the leader." Danzo replied, ignoring the tone of disrespect in her voice.

"You have all been briefed on the mission parameters. Any further questions will be answered by Anko." He said to Naruto, Hinata and Sakura.

"Meet each other at 06:00 hours tomorrow at the northern gate. You may leave my presence" Danzo added contemptuously.

Naruto, Sakura, Hinata and Anko all shuffled out of the Hokage's office but not before Naruto secured one last glare at Danzo before slamming the door shut.

At the base of the Hokage building Anko said,

"See you all at 06:00 hours. Make sure to get a good night's sleep… you'll need it". With that she disappeared into the night leaving Naruto, Hinata and Sakura alone with each other.

"Naruto-kun, do you have a moment? Hinata said twiddling her fingers in her usual fashion. "I would l-like to d-discuss a certain matter w-with you…" her voice trailed off and her cheeks furiously flushed red.

This was not what Naruto was hoping for. He could see Sakura staring back and forth between Hinata and himself. But he knew that he could not sweep this matter underneath the metaphorical rug.

"Sure Hinata" Naruto said. "I was just about to go to Ichiraku's. If you want, you can join me?" He said coolly.

"Yes. I would like that" Hinata nodded, re-enforcing her words.

Before the two could set off Sakura said,

"I guess I'll see you both tomorrow…" in a slightly downcast tone.

"Yes, take care Sakura-san" Hinata said.

"Yeah… see you tomorrow" Naruto said impassively. "Take care Sakura-chan"

He avoided her gaze and set off with Hinata to finally have their long awaited conversation at the iconic Ramen stand.

**Author's note;**

**You'll notice Hinata stutters at some stages. It's my attempt to highlight when she's extremely nervous.  
**

**It's been a good and refreshing experience writing stories like this and I already have a plan for another story. I think I may start writing it out soon. Furthermore, seeing as it's pouring down with rain right now, this seems like a good way to spend my time.**

**Your support, ideas and reviews have absolutely incredible – honestly, I could not have asked for more. A few days before my Further Maths exam, I was reading Psycho G's 'Sealed Legacy' fan fic (one of my favourites) and I felt like I wanted to create a story too. With all these ideas in my head, I felt that it was about time I channelled these energies.**

**I never imagined it would come this far. Over 500 hits and counting… it's been awesome!**

**Thank you so much.**

**Chapter 4 will be out sometime soon. (I never give specific dates because I have been known to be a serial procrastinator).**

**I'll stop the whole 'gushing' at your awesomeness at the end of chapters (well I'll try to but it may be hard because you're all so awesome for reading this) I'd prefer to discuss reviews or the story. Maybe even hot topics currently in Naruto (like who is Sasuke going to meet; personally I'll take a guess on Rin or a lost/surviving Uzumaki (or Senju). PM me for my reasoning as to why – if you're interested.)**

**One more thing, in response to a guest reviewer's question, this confession takes place around the time the original confession would take place.**


	4. Chapter 4 - Sweet and Savoury Truths

**Shout out time. Thank you for the reviews; these are the reviews that caught my eye at the time of writing:**

'**Psycho G' (as you know already, your praise and constructive criticism is just incredible), 'jill' (I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long), 'yuuki-baka' (The idea of Danzo being Hokage was a brainwave – and keeping in line with the canon), 'acedude' (ahaha, Kishimoto maybe should have included the conversation in the series, I hope to do it justice then) and finally 'Chewie Cookies' (thank you very much, it's cool of you to reply to the e-mail) and Angelito Soldado (awesome review).**

**Quick notes before we start… the all important conversation IS in this chapter. After this chapter I think I'm going to increase the pace of the story as I want to put some action in it.**

**Also, I wasn't sure how intelligent to make Naruto in the series, so I figured I went with what felt right, I hope this doesn't create inconsistencies. But anyway…**

**I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shipudden. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.**

**ON WITH THE STORY…**

Naruto and Hinata walked in silence towards the familiar ramen stand. It was absolutely bizarre for Naruto right now. All of his life he had longed to be loved and in one day he had received two confessions. One from his long standing crush, Sakura Haruno and another from Hinata Hyuga…

Hinata Hyuga…

He really didn't know where he stood with her. On one hand, he still remembered the timid girl that always acted nervously and blushed fiercely whenever she was around him; and on the other hand, he remembered the young woman who stood defiantly in front of Pein and risked her life to save his… the brave and bold Hinata.

The cauldron of emotion inside Naruto and pressure that he was feeling on his shoulders right now was ridiculous. It was threatening to overflow and spill everywhere.

Not only did he have a critical mission tomorrow…

Danzo Shimura was now the Hokage…

Only a few hours ago, he met his father for the first time ever…

Sasuke had been placed with a 'kill on site' order…

And he had the almost enviable position of choosing between Sakura and Hinata…

Would Lady Tsunade be okay? Could he defy orders from his village to help out his long gone friend? Who did he care for more Hinata… or Sakura?

All these questions were swimming through his head right now.

He turned to look at Hinata and saw a veil of her indigo coloured hair covering her face. Like a barrier hiding her face and thoughts…

In spite of his mood, he couldn't help but stare at her. Throughout the many years he had come to know her, he had only now truly noticed her. She had managed to impress him in the past, but he had never actually acknowledged her as more than friend.

He was impressed with how determined she had been to beat her cousin Neji at the Chuunin exams…

But now he was also impressed with her bravery against Pein…

He was also impressed with how much she had grown as a person during his two year absence. She had gotten stronger, smarter and – if he dared to say – very pretty.

Due to his thought process, he did not realise that they were only moments away from arriving at Ichiraku's.

But to be perfectly honest, he was more interested in what she was thinking of…

Throughout the whole walk, Hinata had been silent. Partially, because she was upset at Naruto's uncharacteristically hushed demeanour and partially because she was nervous being in his presence.

She knew she had made herself clear today – during the battle with Pein – on where she wanted to be in regards to Naruto.

Hinata looked up and saw the ramen stand only a few metres away; as she turned right to look at Naruto she did not expect to meet his gaze. He was staring at her… with a thoughtful expression; almost as if he was close to working out a problem, but not in possession of the all important piece capable of solving it.

She turned away in embarrassment. To think after all these years of knowing Naruto, she still could not bring herself to truly meet his gaze.

They arrived at the bar and Naruto gave his usual greeting to the kind chef.

Turning to his left and locking eyes with the indigo haired female he asked "What do you want to eat Hinata?"

Hinata honestly did not want to eat anything but out of respect and to avoid any awkwardness, she said "I'll just have a Tonkotsu ramen please." She then continued looking down and shying away from his gaze again.

"One Tonkotsu ramen and one miso – pork ramen dish please!" Naruto said loudly to the kind chef, hoping that his increase in volume would hide his nerves.

"Coming up, Naruto-kun" the chef said. He always felt happy to serve his best customer.

An uncomfortable silence followed. Unable to bear the silence any longer, Hinata spoke up.

"N- Naruto – kun, we need to talk… about what I said".

She was extremely nervous but she vowed to not back down until the issue was dealt with. She willed herself to use the speech techniques she had been working on to control her stuttering (with varied success).

"I don't want to pressure you into giving me an answer" she continued "But you don't seem to want to talk at all anymore".

Willing herself to look at him, she turned to her right and saw the usually confident ninja quieter than ever. His silence was more unnerving than anything else.

"I- If you want me to, I can leave here and I'll leave you alone." Hinata said, readying herself to leave but not truly wanting to carry out her words. If she did carry out her words it would ultimately mean that she would be accepting defeat… however... she did not want to impose herself on him...

Nevertheless, she did not want to bother Naruto in any way and so she reluctantly got up and started to leave…

That was until she felt four warm fingers and a thumb enclose around her hand.

"I'm sorry, Hinata…" Naruto said sincerely, keeping a firm grip of her hand. "It's only fair that I give you an answer… after all you put your life on the line for me. It's the least I can do... Please stay." He said warmly, letting go of her hand after he had finished his sentence.

She blushed.

They both sat down again. This time the atmosphere was less awkward.

"Hinata, what in particular do you want me to answer?" Naruto said in trepidation.

Hinata thought for a few seconds before asking:

"After you got back to the village, did you think about my confession? Did you think about what I said at all?... Did you think about me...?"

She looked at him squarely so she could clearly see his facial expression.

Naruto was extremely nervous at this point. He was not sure whether he wanted to reveal this piece of information to her. If he did tell her that she and Sakura were one of the only things he could think of within the last few hours, he may send a message that he may not have intended to send ...yet…

"Well… honestly" Naruto started he knew that he had to tell the truth in this matter. "I guess I ha-"

At that moment the ramen chef arrived shouting "HERE YOU GO LOVEBIRDS!" cutting Naruto off mid-way through his confession and placing the two steaming dishes on the table in front of them.

"Arigatou, Teuchi-san" Naruto said, slightly irate due to the fact he had been interrupted mid – way through his sentence and slightly embarrassed due to being referred to as a "lovebird".

"Arigatou gozaimasu, Teuchi-san" Hinata said also slightly irate and embarrassed for the same reasons as Naruto.

Naruto smelt the delicious dish in front of him and couldn't help but take a mouthful of it. He then turned his attention back to Hinata.

The whole time she had neglected her food. She only wanted to hear what Naruto had to say at this moment in time.

"W-well Naruto-kun?" Hinata said, failing to hide her eagerness.

He took a deep breath – expelling all of his nerves – and then said calmly and clearly;

"Yes, I have. It's been on my mind quite a lot."

Hinata was silent for a few moments, enveloped in mild shock at the fact that Naruto actually thought about her, but she was also enveloped with mild confusion and sadness as Naruto's actions in the past few hours didn't bode well for her.

He seemed to forget that she was very smart. She could tell that he had intended to avoid her for the past few hours.

"So w-where do we go from here Naruto-kun?" Hinata said apprehensively.

"W-well… I don't know Hinata…" Naruto said earnestly "There have been so many other things to deal with and so many other issues that I'm not sure what to do… There's also Sakura-ch…" Naruto didn't finish his sentence. He had said far too much.

"What does Sakura-san have to do with this?" Hinata said anxiously. "Are you talking about your discussion with her earlier?" Hinata waited for Naruto's answer rapt with attention.

Naruto paused, he didn't want to lie to Hinata but he wasn't sure if he should betray Sakura's trust.

Making up his mind he said "Sakura and I talked about an issue that has been around for a while now." He intentionally avoided her gaze.

"When I delivered the mission details this morning, I heard her shout at you 'You can't tell me what I'm feeling!'. What did she mean?" Hinata interrogated.

Naruto paled at the mention of Sakura's words. He couldn't lie though; he knew the truth was the best course of action.

"I told her that I thought she was lying…" Naruto said, trying hard to not clearly answer the question.

"May I ask what it was you thought she was lying about?" Hinata said showing the faintest hint of frustration.

Resigned to the truth Naruto reluctantly said "I thought she was lying about her feelings for me… She told me the same thing you told me."

All of the events within the past hours had finally made some sort of sense to Hinata. Naruto had received two confessions and now she assumed that he was debating who he actually wanted – if he wanted any of them at all.

Suddenly, Hinata was deeply upset. If Naruto had taken all this time to avoid her but had immediately shared a conversation with Sakura after his battle… did that mean he had already made up his mind? Sure, he said he didn't believe Sakura's words at the time but maybe he had come to reason that she was telling the truth. If he believed that she was being truthful… where did this leave Hinata?

Sakura was his long lasting crush. If he believed she reciprocated her feelings… surely it would mean that Hinata was out of this metaphorical race…

But she had to hear it from his mouth first before she gave up.

With the last of her resolve Hinata asked Naruto the question that would decide the course of her actions…

"N-Naruto-kun… Do you… care for Sakura?" Hinata knew this answer could break her.

"Yes… Of course I do! But…" Naruto answered.

"It's okay. You don't have to say anymore." Hinata said, not even bothering to hide the tears falling from her face and not really hearing the rest of Naruto's sentence.

Standing up, Hinata managed to say "I have to be getting home. Goodbye Naruto". She didn't want to be at the ramen bar anymore. She didn't want to be anywhere that reminded her of the one thing she cared about.

She left, leaving a perplexed Naruto alone.

You see, Naruto – after being teammates with her for years – cared for Sakura, but he didn't think about Sakura romantically anymore. Even though it was tough at the time, he had accepted that she wanted Sasuke and not himself. He still believed that she held these feelings for Sasuke (even though she said otherwise) and just couldn't take her words literally. Besides, he saw her more as a sister figure nowadays.

But he didn't get to finish telling Hinata this because she left, clearly upset.

He realised how tactless he had been and sighed in exasperation at himself. He never wanted to hurt Hinata.

He turned back to the table to finish up his ramen and saw Hinata's steaming bowl still untouched.

It only served as a reminder to how alone he was now that Hinata had gone.

_**The next day…**_

Naruto woke up the next morning at around 04:30. He wanted to make sure that he wasn't late for his mission. Groggily, he walked to the shower and cleansed himself. After getting dressed, he went to the kitchen and made himself some Ramen for breakfast. He washed his meal down with his usual carton of milk and paused for a second.

He couldn't help himself… he just couldn't forget about the events of the last few days; in particular, Hinata and Sakura.

He had shared a conversation with the two of them in recent days, each with varying degrees of success (or more appropriately failure).

He wondered how they could complete this mission when the team was such a broken mess.

He would soon find out…

* * *

**Author's note:**

**I hope you enjoyed that chapter and I hope I didn't keep you all waiting too long. One thing that I would like to say is that I did have to search for genuine Ramen dishes. Tonkotsu is a GENUINE dish. It is a noodle based dish with an 80/20 blend of pork and chicken stocks, flavoured with Mongolian salt.**

**Also, I had a bit of difficulty with this chapter; I didn't feel it flowed like the other chapters. But hopefully you like it.**

**Finally, I decided to tell a few people I know of my story. They all responded well so that's encouraging. It will be nice to have people to maybe share my ideas with once in a while. One friend in particular from London gave me the best review ever; it had the perfect blend of criticism and positives. So I'd like to give a shout out to Johnno!**

**For those who do not follow manga or anime the "-kun", "-chan"and "san" suffixes are part of Japanese culture. If you're interested in finding out, there's a website that gives perfect explanations of each term. Just Google 'narutohurricane'. Its' very good for explaining the terms.**

**Thank you again and I hope you can read the next chapter.**


	5. Chapter 5 - Rebuilding Broken Bonds

**Shout out time (to spread a bit of positivity) – **

**Resilience1 (Well it's people like you who are the reason I enjoy writing), gamelover41592 (glad you think so, hopefully I can continue), Kamahamaha (I hope this update reaches you in time), Angelito Soldado (thanks again, glad to see your reviews) and finally Chewie Cookies (I hope so too but we'll just have to wait and see deary ;P). **

**A little bit of build up before the mission (like 650 words - I can't help it I feel things need a bit of a back story). Besides I'm laying the foundations for something you may be waiting for. The chapter should be a lot longer than usual but should also advance the story as well. Anyway…**

**ON WITH THE STORY…**

Naruto left his humble abode at 05:30. When he walked outside, he looked upwards and saw the bluish hue of the sky; the kind that only appeared in the early hours of the day when the sun was just appearing.

He only lived 15 minutes away from the village gate where the team would be meeting and so decided he would have ten minutes to go and get any emergency supplies for his mission.

He set off to the town's market district. He knew at this time of day most of the shops would not be open. However, some shops did make sure that they were open at this time in case some ninja were heading out at hours such as this. These shops were the ninja tools shops and the Yamanaka Flower shop. Naruto would drop in quickly to get some spare kunai and get some medicinal herbs from the flower shop. He knew he wouldn't need too many goods from the flower shop as he had Sakura on his team – who was a medical ninja. He only stocked up on herbs in case something happened to Sakura and he needed to heal himself.

He first reached the ninja tools shop and got himself a set of kunai. He then went to the Yamanaka shop and met a tired looking Ino.

"Hey Ino" Naruto said, devoid of any enthusiasm.

"Hello Naruto!" Ino said with as much energy she could muster, "What can I do for you today?"

"Can I have some healing and medicinal herbs please?" He said dejectedly.

"Sure Naruto…" Ino said. She left to get the supplies. She couldn't help but notice that the usually upbeat young man was not his normal self.

Letting her curiosity get the better of her she asked "Naruto, what's wrong with you, why are you so miserable today?"

Not making eye contact Naruto replied with "Nothing, Ino…"

Naruto did not know that Hinata had also visited the shop 15 minutes ago and Ino had witnessed the same mood within her as well. Hinata mentioned something about going on a mission with Naruto, before she went quiet. Ino pressed Hinata into telling her what was wrong and Hinata recounted the events of last night. Throughout the conversation tears threatened to fall down Hinata's face as she spoke.

Ino decided that she wanted to get some answers from Naruto.

"Your mood doesn't have anything to do with… Hinata… does it?" Ino said in a knowing tone.

Naruto looked straight at Ino and said gruffly. "Can I just have the goods that I asked for?"

"Not until you tell me what happened Naruto…" Ino said firmly.

"It's not really your business." Naruto said.

Ino though, still stared at Naruto, expecting an answer.

"Fine, I can go elsewhere…" Naruto said turning to leave. He knew that nowhere else was open this morning to give him the supplies he needed, but he did not want to suffer another emotional experience.

"Well, Hinata was in here this morning and she told me how last night went." Ino said quickly, stopping Naruto in his tracks.

"How could you be such a jerk to her?" Ino continued "After all she's done for you. After all the years she spent admiring you. After all this time she spent getting stronger just so one day you could acknowledge her… and THIS is how you act? As if YOU'RE the victim in all of this? …WHAT THE HELL NARUTO?!" Ino yelled.

Ino's words struck a nerve with Naruto.

"THAT'S NOT TRUE INO!" Naruto roared in anger. "IT WASN'T LIKE THAT! I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO FINISH SAYING WHAT I WANTED TO!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T EVEN GET TO FINISH SAYING WHAT YOU WANTED TO?!" Ino roared back. "FROM WHAT I HEARD, IT SEEMED LIKE YOU SAID MORE THAN ENOUGH! WHY THE HELL DID YOU TELL HER YOU LOVE SAKURA?! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING YOU IDIOT" Ino said, voicing all of her frustrations at Naruto. What annoyed Ino the most about this was the manner Naruto was speaking about this… as if it wasn't his fault.

"I MEANT THAT I NEVER GOT TO FINISH TELLING HER THAT I CARE FOR SAKURA MORE LIKE A SISTER! Naruto roared "HINATA RAN AWAY IN TEARS BEFORE I COULD TELL HER!"

"THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU GO AFTER HER NARUTO?!" Ino screamed, clearly exasperated at Naruto's lack of tact.

"I-I-I… I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY!" Naruto howled. "WHAT COULD I SAY?! 'I'M SORRY FOR NOT KNOWING HOW I FEEL?!' 'I'M SORRY THAT I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY BECAUSE I'VE NEVER EXPERIENCED LOVE BEFORE IN MY LIFE?!'… WHAT THE HELL COULD I HAVE SAID INO?!" Naruto bellowed – half hoping for a genuine answer to his question.

Ino was at a loss for words. She had never actually witnessed Naruto become angry before but seeing him produce this amount of emotion for Hinata…

"I DON'T KNOW HOW TO ACT!" Naruto continued to bellow – not waiting for an answer any longer.

"I WANT TO KNOW WHAT TO DO! I WANT TO KNOW WHAT TO SAY!... I DON'T… want to hurt anyone I care about again… I don't want to hurt Hinata ever again." Naruto said – slowly decreasing in volume throughout his speech; in realisation of his emotions.

"Well shouldn't you be telling Hinata this…?" Ino said slowly, doing her best to appear unfazed by Naruto's previous anger.

Naruto stood for a few seconds dumfounded at truth of Ino's words… All of his anger left him in that instant because of Ino's sentence.

"I think you need to talk to Hinata properly this time…" Ino said in a gravely voice due to her voice being hoarse voice from all of the shouting.

"Here…" Ino said in a calmer tone, handing over the goods Naruto came in for. "…no charge this time" she finished – in an almost sympathetic tone; she turned to go back to the Yamanaka store room. But not before Naruto said in a respectful tone:

"Arigatou Ino… and gomen nasai." bowing his head in a show of respect.

Ino looked back, shocked at Naruto's uncharacteristic actions. Naruto never failed to surprise her. Maybe if things had turned out differently, she and Naruto could have worked...

"What am I thinking?" Ino said quietly to herself. "No, not Naruto..." Ino said shaking her head. Now was not the time to focus on 'what ifs'.

She then followed Naruto's departure with her eyes and watched him leave the shop.

_**At the village gates. It is 05:55.**_

Sakura, Hinata and Anko were at the village gates. They stood in uncomfortable silence. They were all waiting for Naruto; although, if the truth were to be told, Hinata and Anko would rather not be here. Anko would rather be at a bar getting a few drinks and Hinata would much rather have avoided Naruto than go on a mission with him.

Sakura seemed to be the only one actually looking forward to Naruto's arrival.

When Naruto turned up, their reactions clearly represented their moods. Hinata turned away to look at anywhere else but Naruto, Sakura simply smiled at Naruto and Anko couldn't care less.

Naruto only wanted to see Hinata but she was not looking at him and did not seem to want to initiate eye contact at all. He saw Sakura smiling at him and decided the decent thing to do was to return her smile. However, he couldn't help but resume trying to get Hinata's attention. That was until he was distracted by Anko talking to him…

"You took your time Naruto." Anko said, slightly annoyed. "Before we go…" she continued "we need to have a travelling formation."

The three teens were still pretty quiet, listening intently to Anko's words.

"I've picked the formation that is most suitable." Anko said "I will be at the front as team leader; to give instruction to everyone. Hinata will be just behind me as her eyes can guide us in the right direction, closely followed by Naruto; this is to allow him to get to all of us and assist the team in case of enemy encounters. Sakura will be just behind Naruto, to keep her out of the fighting for as long as possible. Again this formation allows us the most manoeuvrability and gives us the best chance of reacting effectively to enemy attack."

They all nodded in response.

"The objective of this mission is to locate Orochimaru's hideout and if possible gain any leads on Sasuke Uchiha. Our main priority is intelligence – as the Hokage said – therefore we must employ stealth tactics." Anko said sternly.

"Do you all understand?" Anko asked. They nodded in response "Make sure you follow my orders and we'll be fine. Anko said, making sure to give Naruto a prolonged stare before looking at the other two.

Normally, Naruto would have been annoyed at what Anko was obviously implying but right now, all he cared about was fixing the mess that he created with Hinata. He also knew that he needed to concentrate on this mission as there was a chance he could find his long lost friend, Sasuke Uchiha.

They set off in the formation Anko had instructed moving and jumping fluidly through the forest and tree branches; all the while Naruto kept his focus on Hinata.

The four person platoon moved in perfect sync.

They continued weaving and jumping through the forest for three hours, until they started to hear some noises. Tell tales signs of human presence. They heard footsteps, machinery and of course voices.

The four man platoon stopped as soon as Anko signalled to.

From their position, they could see a clearing below with two male ninja. The male ninja wore forehead protectors from the hidden sound village. They seemed to be deep in conversation; seemingly oblivious to everything else around them.

Anko's platoon watched the two men. Anko leaned forward to try and eavesdrop on their conversation. She could only make out the words"…take the initiative…" and "…should act now…" from the conversation between the two.

Suddenly, one of the men threw a kunai in the direction of Anko's team.

"Come out to plaaaayy!" One of the men said "We know all four of you are there… whilst you were eavesdropping, we used our chakra sensing abilities to see how many of you were invading our privacy. We are ninja after all." One of the men said.

"Yeah!" the other man said. "Do you really think Lord Orochimaru would send to average ninja on lookout duty, we're the best at what we do." he crowed.

"Damn it" Anko thought. "How long did they know that we were here?... We have no choice."

"Naruto, Hinata… you two will stick together if we have to split up. Sakura you're with me."

Anko stopped briefly to see her team's expressions – she was surprised to see Naruto smiling and Hinata and Sakura slightly upset. Ignoring this, she continued, "Are you all ready for a fight?"

"Yes Anko-sama." Naruto, Hinata and Sakura said in unison.

The platoon jumped down from the tree; all landing lightly on the ground.

"So are you going to fight us or come quietly?" The first sound ninja said.

"If you're stupid enough to think that we're just going to walk with you back to that snake Orochimaru…" Anko said whilst charging forward weaving hand signs at a rapid rate.

"… then you don't deserve to live" she finished – summoning a pair of six feet Boa Constrictors and launching them at her enemies.

Naruto and Hinata – following Anko's lead – charged forward together.

Sakura stayed behind, knowing her role to heal her team was more important than her participation in battle.

Naruto made the hand sign for his signature shadow clone technique. He produced eight replications of himself. The increased number of Narutos caused great confusion amongst the sound ninja. Seeing as Naruto's chakra was split evenly throughout the eight clones, they could not use their sensing abilities to find the real Naruto.

Naruto took advantage of this confusion and sent three of his clones to go after the first sound ninja and three to go after the second ninja.

Whilst the Naruto clones and Anko were busy with the first ninja, Naruto prepared to launch an attack on the second ninja. Helped by his two remaining clones, Naruto started to focus chakra in his palm and feel the familiar sensation of pressured wind. Soon he had formed a ball of pure wind and chakra – the first stage of his most powerful technique – the Rasengan.

His two remaining clones charged at the second assailant from the sound village. The clones engaged in battle with the sound ninja, throwing kicks and punches but also blocking any hits directed at them.

Hinata saw Naruto's clones rush ahead of her and engage the enemy. She realised what Naruto was doing and decided that he could do with her help. She activated her Byakugan.

She knew the perfect way to stop the sound ninja. She had been monitoring the sound ninja's chakra network whilst charging at him and noticed that most of his chakra was flowing through his left shoulder.

Continuing her charge, she started to gather chakra in her fingertips and aimed for that shoulder; it would be the perfect way to immobilise the enemy and give Naruto enough time to strike. As she reached the enemy, the ninja realised that the young female was about to hit him and tried to dodge Hinata's incoming attack… but to no avail.

Due to the amount of clones he was holding off and the pure speed of Hinata's hands, he simply could not avoid the crushing blow Hinata dealt to his left shoulder. The sound ninja felt all of his power leave him. He could not understand why one simple punch had weakened him so much until he looked into the eyes of the young woman. He did not know what the pupil-less eyes or the veins on the side of them meant but he did know that they were about to become the cause for his downfall. It was the end for him.

Naruto had been watching Hinata's excellent attack – with slight admiration at the grace of her movements and the power of her attack – and knew that now was the time for him to finish off the enemy. He raced forward with the charged Rasengan in his hand and launched the ball of death towards the doomed enemy ninja. The Rasengan lanced the enemy and blew the sound ninja into a nearby tree before he slumped to the ground; a crumpled mess of blood and guts.

Naruto and Hinata looked over at Anko's enemy.

He had managed to take out two of Naruto's clones but the combined might of Naruto's remaining clone and Anko had made sure he was not getting out of this forest alive. One of Anko's summoned boa constrictors clamped its mouth around the throat of the sound ninja. It was almost as if a river damn had burst as blood spurted out from the bite creating a crimson waterfall that flowed from his Adam's apple and down the snake's throat.

The ninja gurgled "Orochimaru-sama will get you for thi..." before slumping to the ground in his own river of blood.

Naruto rushed towards Hinata and asked "Are you okay Hinata? … he could have hurt you…"

"I'm fine Naruto-kun. I trained as hard as you for the past two years to make sure ninja like that cannot hurt me." Hinata replied, not making eye contact.

"You were amazing… Hinata-chan." Naruto said, deliberately adding the honorific suffix.

She noticed the addition of the suffix and looked up at Naruto to see him smiling at him. She then looked down at the ground. She couldn't look at him; it would bring back all of the emotions that he made her feel and as they were on a mission there could be no time for that.

Besides… she only thought that Naruto asked if she was okay because they were teammates, not because he actually cared.

Sakura looked at Naruto and Hinata and saw the two together. She could not help but envy Hinata as she seemed to have all of Naruto's attention. The flash of envy soon faded away to be replace by loneliness and a touch of guilt.

She thought back to when Naruto, Sasuke and herself were together as a team. She remembered how she only focused on Sasuke and completely ignored Naruto…

"Is this how I made Naruto feel all those years ago?" She thought to herself.

Suddenly, she understood how amazing Naruto was. For him to have stood by her as her teammate after all of those years of neglect and insult… he was a far better person than her. Her thoughts were interrupted when Anko asked:

"Is everyone okay?"

"Yes Anko – sama!" Naruto and Hinata answered.

Sakura though, could not answer. She did not know anything anymore and if the truth were to be told, she felt horrible for making Naruto feel so alone and unwanted for all of those years. However, she knew that now was neither the time nor the place to feel sorry for herself and so she ran over to the rest of the group.

"The sounds from that battle may have alerted the enemy and if there were two lookouts over here, they may have sent a message to Orochimaru during our battle. Even if they haven't sent a message, the fact that they won't report back will be noticed. We have to act swiftly and quietly from this point onwards; even more so than before. Understood?" Anko said.

"Yes Anko-sama." the team said in unison.

"Let's move, back into formation" Anko said.

The team moved off again, towards their destination.

It took them another two hours before they could finally make out a cave entrance. It seemed they had reached Orochimaru's cave.

"Follow my lead everyone…" Anko said grimly, walking into the unknown depths.

* * *

**Author's notes:**

**Quick mention, a few reviews weren't mentioned due to them not being ones I particularly enjoyed. However, they were useful and I do read every single review, so please don't hesitate to say what you feel. **

**'gomen nasai' is simply a polite way of saying sorry in Japanese.**

**For those who don't watch Naruto but read this story (very unlikely but still… just in case), Byakugan is an eye technique used by the Hyuga clan in the 'Naruto-verse'. It grants the user ultimate vision and allows them to see over long distances all around them and a person's chakra network. In more skilled users, it allows them to see chakra points (which control chakra flow) and those who are very skilled in the Gentle Fist style of taijutsu can hit those chakra points effectively stopping a person's chakra flow or increasing it.**

**I did say updates will be irregular but I do apologize for the long break. I really needed to inspire myself to write the story again. I'm still trying to keep that motivation going but I won't lie… it is tough. We'll see how things go over the next few weeks and if I still feel this way I'll pull the plug on the story. I apologize if this upsets any of you as that was never my intention. Besides, the chances of that happening right now are quite low. It's more likely that I will put this story on hiatus.**

**But for now, updates will have to be on the weekends. I hope to finish this story within 15 chapters so it doesn't drag on.**

**Thank you again for your continued interest. Have a nice day.**


	6. Chapter 6 - Below the surface

**Shout out time; **

**Not too many reviews to pick from this time but oh well. First, Rose tiger (You may have to wait a couple of chapters for that… but IT WILL HAPPEN!), gamerlover41592 (I'm sorry :S I hope you enjoy this chapter) and last but not least Psycho G (Glad you think so.)**

**I was very tired writing this chapter so there may be errors or problems but I did my best to proof read it in my tired state (sorry about the delays. I'm just really inconsistent and I need to have that urge to write before I produce anything of a decent quality). Besides, I feel like I'm not reaching the heights that I can academically and so I want to focus on my studies a bit more. But I now know that I will try my hardest to finish this story.**

**But anyway…**

**ON WITH THE STORY!**

As soon as Anko's squad entered the cave the potent smell of blood hit their noses like a knockout punch. It was mixed with a burning smell and the slight odour of sweat. The cave did not have much lighting. It was almost impossible to make out details of objects in the dimness; not to mention each other. But the one sensation that really unnerved the team was the temperature. It was far too cold. The feeling of cold air on their mildly covered skin chilled their resolve and nerve.

Anko was the most unnerved of the group and her evident fear was felt by the rest of the team. The fear emanated from every one of her pores further chilling the atmosphere. Anko could not only feel her curse mark (that was implanted by Orochimaru) burning her skin (whilst the air chilled everything else), she could also feel herself losing control of herself and this only unnerved her further; she knew that she was not like this.

She never feared anything, yet…

This caved caused her to feel fear she had rarely experienced before. But what was it about this cave that caused her to feel such fear? What was it about this cave that made her want to grab a kunai from her pouch and drive it through her own skull to end everything?

This despair… This hopelessness… This fear…

The only time she had ever felt something like this was when she had been marked with the curse mark by her previous teacher… Orochimaru.

She used to idolise that man but the more she looked back at her time with her sensei, the more she realised how abnormal and twisted he was. When she had been planted with the curse mark that day, it was the first time she felt the psychotic aura Orochimaru possessed. It was the first time she got to glimpse into the demented world that Orochimaru spent every day of his life in.

Right now, she could feel his presence all over this cave. It almost suffocated her. But, she had managed to escape that life; whilst he could not.

Right now, she knew she had to escape her own madness if she were to leave this place alive. The fact that she had already escaped madness before had emboldened her. This piece of information brought a faint smile to her face and dispelled some of her nerves.

With her nerves back at a manageable quantity, she now felt able to formulate a plan of action.

She was not sure whether she wanted to split the team up - increasing the speed of the search but halving the team's core strength, or keep the team together – keeping the core strength at maximum but sacrificing speed.

However, as team leader she had to make a decision.

"All right team." Anko said, mustering as much authority and control as she could to her voice. "It seems we are going to have to split up."

If she was going to be honest with herself, Anko did not want to split up the unit but if she wanted to get out of this place quickly, this would be the quickest method…

Anko would have felt safer with Naruto – as he was easily the strongest ninja out of the teens and as much as she hated to admit it… he was far stronger than her. But she knew that the team's dynamics would not be cohesive if they were paired up. Anko wanted a medical ninja in each pairing so Naruto would have to be paired with someone other than herself.

Although she did not know exactly what the problem was between the two, she knew that Sakura and Hinata would not be a solid partnership.

Naruto and Sakura would naturally be a team but Anko was not sure she would work well with Hinata.

In her mind Anko knew that herself and Hinata would most likely not be an effective team due to their fighting styles. Hinata would have to be close to her enemy to strike and that would mean being close to Anko's attacking snakes. Anko knew that her snakes were to be left well alone when in the middle of a battle. Aside from that, Hinata knew medical ninjutsu as well. From Naruto's battle with Pein, Anko assumed that he would not need too much medical attention but if he did, Hinata's skills would be sufficient.

This just left Sakura. Yes, she was a close combat type as well, but her medical skills and chakra control would allow her to heal herself in case something went wrong with her snakes (as Sakura has far better medical skill than Hinata).

Not to forget that Sakura was quite effective in a battle – if she needed to fight.

"Naruto, you will be paired up with Hinata. Sakura you're with me." Anko said quickly; her voice more even now that she was calmer.

She had time to pause quickly and notice the expressions on her team's faces. She saw Naruto grinning, Hinata upset and Sakura slightly frustrated.

Sakura could not believe that she would not be with Naruto. After all the missions they had been through in the past and the knowledge they had of each other's skills, fate would still try to pull Naruto and Hinata closer together… and push her further away.

Hinata could not believe that she was going to be paired with Naruto; she assumed Sakura would be the automatic choice as Naruto and Sakura had been on a team together for such a long time. She also did not want to welcome the idea of spending more time with Naruto and being a burden to him. She did not want to make him feel encumbered with her presence.

However, Hinata did not realise that her despair was clouding her usually perfect sight. If she had only looked up at that moment, she may have been able to see beneath the surface of this great mess. If she had looked up she could seen the truth behind this whole mess… but she did not.

Naruto could not believe his luck. He had a golden opportunity to let Hinata know that he was sorry about the way he handled things earlier but he knew that he would have to keep focus on the mission at hand seeing as that was the main duty… but he could not help but feel slight hope at his current situation. He now had a chance to rebuild bonds with Hinata… and maybe even Sasuke.

After seeing their expressions, Anko was not so sure if she made the right choice after all… but it was too late to change plans now.

"Remember, the aim is to subdue the enemy but more importantly, to gather intelligence. Report back here within thirty minutes. If something goes wrong or the enemy spots you, do your best to escape the situation and regroup with the team. Expect anything. Hopefully we'll all make it back alive…" Anko said, with an air of uncertainty.

"Are we all clear?" she continued.

The three young ninja nodded in response.

"All right, let's move!" Anko said.

The team split up into their respective groups and departed.

Naruto and Hinata set off in silence. Partly due to the fact that they did not want to be discovered and partly due to the fact that Hinata was moving at a pace that kept her at a distance from Naruto – making it harder to talk without causing too much noise.

Despite the silence, Naruto welcomed the split.

"This is the perfect chance. I know we're on a mission but I have to let Hinata know…" Naruto thought to himself.

"Hinata – chan… I have something to say." Naruto said out loud.

Hinata stopped moving. The honorific suffix that Naruto recently started using for her never failed to make her blush. But she had not stopped because of Naruto's words; she had stopped because she had heard footsteps just before Naruto had spoken.

"Naruto – kun…" Hinata said cutting him off, "I can hear footsteps. I'm going to activate my eyes to see who it is." Hinata said.

Using her gifted eyes, she scanned the vicinity and saw two guards around the corner. They were standing talking to each other. The words were inaudible but Hinata saw that they were facing away from Naruto and herself. She knew that Naruto and herself could knock these guards out and gain clear passage to the hall.

Hinata told Naruto all of this information and he nodded his head in acknowledgment. They both moved into position behind the guards – without making a sound – and immobilised them. Hinata hit one the guard's chakra point that was located around his neck and Naruto clubbed the other guard with his fist. There was a storage cupboard next to them. Naruto and Hinata bundled the bodies into the cupboard. It was at that moment Hinata realised something.

"Naruto – kun, what if someone walks by, surely they would know that two guards were stationed here? Won't their absence be noticed?" Hinata asked with slight fear.

Naruto knew there was truth in Hinata's words and also started to worry. That was until he had a brainwave.

"Leave it to me Hinata – chan" Naruto said confidently.

Naruto made two shadow clones and ordered them to transform into exact copies of the unconscious guards.

"There!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly "Problem solved!"

Hinata was impressed with Naruto's ingenious plan. His resourcefulness and accuracy of the transformation really impressed her… although he needed to be quieter.

"Well done Naruto – kun. That was really clever." she said appraisingly.

This caused Naruto to blush. In order to hide his embarrassment, Naruto grinned at her and this in turn caused Hinata to look away and hide her blush.

Upset at Hinata's sudden apathy (or so it seemed to him), Naruto said:

"I guess we better continue moving, Hinata – chan."

Looking at his clones he said, "Make sure those guards do not leave that store room, keep a close watch for us."

Then he and Hinata continued on their journey.

_**Over with Anko and Sakura…**_

The pair had been travelling for two minutes when they heard noises. They approached the noise – keeping to the shadows – and saw a group of ninja with sound headbands. They were blocking the only way to the next room and Anko decided they had to be taken out of the equation.

There were four in this group. Two of the four were in conversation with each other staring at the entrance to the room beyond and the other two were patrolling the perimeter. Anko summoned two small vipers loaded with poison and ordered them to kill both of the patrolling guards. She then signalled to Sakura to take out one of the guards in conversation whilst she would take out the other.

They began their advance.

They reached the pair of conversing guards as soon as the vipers hit the patrolling guards. Anko and Sakura both plunged kunai into the hearts of the unsuspecting guards.

Anko smiled as she claimed another kill but stopped as soon as the guards in front of her and Sakura both popped in smoke.

The guards were shadow clones.

Anko looked over into the direction of the guards that were supposed to have been bitten by her snakes but saw nothing there.

It seemed like they had fallen into a trap.

All of a sudden, she felt the intense fear creep up on her again. The fear that only her previous mentor could make her feel…

"Hello little Anko… It's been such a long time…" said a slimy and snake like voice.

Anko slowly turned her body around expecting to face the one thing she feared most. However, when she actually faced her assailant she saw someone that she was not expecting.

In fact, she would never have in a million years expected to see the sight in front of her eyes.

In front of her was Kabuto Yakushi; Orochimaru's right hand man. Except, it was not the usual cunning young man in front of her, it was a deformed and reptilian like Kabuto. It looked like he was half Kabuto and half Orochimaru.

"Do you like what I've done with my body young Anko...? You could say that I've upgraded. All it took was a few of Lord Orochimaru's cells and now I'm a God! In fact, I've been waiting for someone who I can test out my new powers on. Would you care to be a good girl and entertain me?" Kabuto said, leering at Anko.

Anko could not respond. She was paralysed with fear. Kabuto suddenly rushed at Anko.

Anko could only stand there frozen. She could only watch her life end as Kabuto charged at her.

She felt something hard knock into her and cause her to be lifted off of the ground. It was not Kabuto.

She moved her head towards the source of her movement and saw a pink haired young lady grabbing her torso and carrying her.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING ANKO-SENSEI?!" Sakura screamed. "WE'VE GOT TO MOVE!" She continued, carrying Anko.

Sakura started to race out of the room but she could only move so fast with the added weight of Anko.

Then a hard blow hit Sakura's back knocking her and Anko to the ground.

From Anko's point of view, everything was moving in slow motion. She felt herself drop from Sakura's shoulders and land hard onto the ground.

But she could not fight any more. She had no strength left. Even though Kabuto was not Orochimaru… he still had Orochimaru inside of him and that fact paralysed her.

The next thing Anko saw Sakura being lifted off of the ground by her throat at the hands of Kabuto. Then Kabuto unleashed a large punch to Sakura's torso sending her flying through the air before she collided with wall and slumped to the ground.

"One down… one to go…" Kabuto said coldly.

Anko could only look at this monster Kabuto had become. She had to do something… but she could not.

In a last futile attempt, she tried to lift her hands from her side and form hand seals but before she had even lifted her hands halfway, Kabuto appeared right next to her and stepped on her left hand.

"Now, now… we can't have you causing any more trouble than you already have. Can we?" Kabuto said in a sing song voice.

"I don't want to kill you Anko; your body is very valuable to my research…" Kabuto said sweetly.

"…that curse mark on your shoulder contains some of Lord Orochimaru's DNA. So you will be coming with me Anko-san." Kabuto finished with an edge of menace in his voice.

"SCREW YOU!" Anko screamed finally finding her voice.

She unleashed a kick with her right leg at Kabuto's head, connecting cleanly. He did not move far. He stepped off of her hand. She released a punch at his torso and then put as much force as she could into a dropkick aimed at his stomach. This sent Kabuto flying across the room. Anko then summoned two six feet Boa Constrictors and ordered them to destroy Kabuto. They followed her orders and she went to go and check up on Sakura.

Sakura was groggy from the hit she had taken, but no serious damage was done. She was about to get up when she saw Anko running towards her. She smiled at Anko to show that she was okay but her smile immediately turned into a look of horror as Sakura saw Kabuto re-appear behind Anko and elbow her in the back of her head. Anko crumpled to the floor.

Kabuto's face was a bloody mess but it did not seem to be too much of a problem to him. He made a quick set of hand signs and suddenly the walls of the cave started to collapse around Sakura.

He then picked up Anko by the neck.

"Goodbye, Sakura. I don't think you'll be leaving this place alive…" Kabuto sneered. He then disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

The roof started to crumble down. Sakura wanted to help Anko and started to go after her and Kabuto until she heard someone shout:

"SAKURA – CHAN! WE'VE GOT TO LEAVE THIS PLACE!"

She turned to look toward the source of the noise and saw Naruto and Hinata waving her over to them.

"BUT WHAT ABOUT ANKO-SAMA?!" Sakura screamed, clearly distraught.

"I'M SORRY SAKURA!" Hinata said. "We have no trail. We'll only get ourselves killed if we try to find them now. This whole base is going to fall. Please Sakura – san, we need to leave. Besides, we have valuable information we need to get back to Konoha and we can only do that if we get back alive."

Sakura saw the reason behind Hinata words and set off after the two.

The group started off in the direction Hinata and Naruto came from.

"We managed to find an exit whilst exploring the base Sakura –chan but... are you okay?" Naruto said.

"I… guess I am, but I can't believe that Anko – sama is gone like that… How will we explain this to everyone?" Sakura said, clearly upset.

No one could answer that question and so they continued in depressing silence.

They reached the exit and did not bother to stop until they reached Konoha. Once the gates were in reach they started to decrease in pace. They did not realise how much chakra they had used to get back to Konoha so they all started to feel incredibly heavy. Luckily, just before they all passed out three jounin ninja managed to grab each one of them and carry them to the village hospital.

* * *

**Author's note:**

**Please leave a review and favourite this story. It means a lot to hear your thoughts on the chapters and get feedback.**

**I got asked this question in a P.M and I thought I would answer it in the author's note. Someone asked me what I listen to when writing chapters. Well here you go; Ben Howard, The Joy Formidable, Jake Bugg, Pendulum, Paolo Nutini, Mumford and Sons, Bloc Party, Kill Hannah, Adele, Miike Snow, Adrian Lux, The Strokes, Cyril Hahn, The Lumineers, The Musgraves, Jessie Ware, Kendrick Lamar, ASAP Rocky, Fugees, Linkin Park, Jay-Z, Kanye West and the Smiths. These are the only ones I can remember from the top of my head. I hope that answers your question.**


	7. Chapter 7 - Mission Results

**Shout out time (WOOOOO!) – **

**Less reviews with each chapter?! Come on guys!**

**To all those that did review… A BIG THANK YOU!**

**Gamerlover41592 (I hope this reaches you in time, when I started, I intended a NaruHina story – to address the fact that Kishimoto did not ONCE make Naruto talk to Hinata after the confession until they were in the middle of a damned war! It should still follow that path – but nothing is definite. If changing the theme benefits the story, I may consider – but right now, that's very unlikely).**

**Psycho G (Yes, it was 'Anko-centric' ahaha! To be honest, I don't really care for Anko much as a character but many of my favourite authors - Higson and Shan - focus on a particular character in their stories when they are involved in a big event to get that first hand perspective. It's effective in their books and I hope it was effective in this story).**

**Kalel201125 (Thanks man, I appreciate it! You readers motivate me! Hope to see another review from you later on).**

**I love your reviews. Hopefully there will be some more this time. Remember details – if you can – and constructive criticism – if you can.**

**But anyway…**

**ON WITH THE STORY!**

As soon as Naruto awoke he could hear the sound of hushed voices that were in the middle of an intense conversation. He recognised the two voices but his fatigue would not allow him put names to them. His mind seemed to be working at a slower rate than usual and his body was far too exhausted.

He felt like he was in an ocean – fighting against the current. Each time he would surface, another wave would drive him under; forcing him back down into the deep sea of sleep. He was literally fighting to keep awake… fighting to keep on hearing what was going around him.

But the fight was taxing. With each successful attempt at resurfacing, he used up energy. The longer the battle continued, the harder it became to continue fighting.

Naruto could feel himself losing this battle. He could feel himself losing the strength to fight against the waves of sleep. The only thing his body wanted was to just give into the ocean of fatigue, fall asleep and recover.

Maybe another time he would have done so… but something was telling Naruto not to give in… yet.

His brief periods of consciousness allowed him to hear a few pieces of the ongoing dialogue.

He was just about to go under another wave of fatigue until he heard the more feminine of the two voices say:

"…for Hinata and Sakura. We need to make sure that we get the information from them. We left the briefing due to their fatigue Kakashi but a team wouldn't come back in this condition without something significant happening to them. Anko didn't return, Sakura received multiple bruised ribs and all three are down with significant chakra exhaustion. Sakura is only in a decent condition due to her skills as a medic. We need to find out what exactly happened."

These words gave Naruto renewed energy. Those words were a life jacket that allowed him to finally stay afloat. As long as he was asleep, he would be unsure about the condition of his two teammates; so he could not stay here. Besides, he needed to tell someone about what he found on information regarding Sasuke.

He forced himself to open up his eyes. As soon as he did, he immediately recognised the white ceiling of Konoha village's hospital.

He then lifted his head up a bit more and saw a white haired man. This man had the lower half of his face and his nose covered by a fabric mask and a tilted leaf headband covering his left eye. He occupied a seat by the window of the room and had an orange coloured 'Icha Icha Paradise' book in his hands. Naruto knew the masked man; it was his mentor and leader of team 7, Kakashi Hatake.

He also noticed that a blond woman with pig tails was standing in front of Kakashi, talking in a hushed tone.

He immediately recognised the woman and started – in a feeble voice – a barrage of questions:

"Baa – chan… How're you here?... what happened?…where's Hinata and Sakura?... do you know about Anko – sama?... did you get the information about Sasuke and Orochimaru already?... what happened?... did you know what will happen to Sasuke in a year's time if I don't find hi-…"

"Calm down Naruto." Lady Tsunade said in an attempt to stem the flow of questions. "Kakashi, Might Guy and Yamato took you, Sakura and Hinata to the hospital." Tsunade continued. "They had a bad feeling about your team and went to go after you guys. I sanctioned the excursion to go and assist you and they came back telling me that you Sakura and Hinata collapsed at the village gates and that they took you three to the hospital..." Lady Tsunade finished.

"Wh-… How're you here? What about Danzo?" Naruto managed to say.

"Danzo has come to an… untimely end by the hands of Sasuke Uchiha. The rest of your questions will be answered later." She finished.

Naruto could not believe what Lady Tsunade had said. Of all the people to end Danzo, it was his long lost friend Sasuke Uchiha.

"Why would Sas-" Naruto started

"Enough Naruto…" Tsunade said firmly, cutting Naruto off mid-way through his question. "Like I said, all of your questions will be answered in due time. Now please, rest up and we'll talk when you're feeling stronger."

"No… I feel fine… just let me… get up… I need to let you know about Sasuke…" Naruto said, grunting throughout his speech as he was struggling with the effort to lift himself up.

"I feel perfectly… fine… I need to go save Sasuke…" Naruto continued.

Naruto struggled for a few more seconds before exhaustion kicked in again; this time harder than all the previous waves and slowly Naruto faded out of this world again, this time completely submersed by the sea of sleep.

Lady Tsunade and Kakashi Hatake watched the young blond collapse onto the hospital bed with mixed expressions. An expression that was half way between exasperation and mirth was plastered across Lady Tsunade's face. Not much could be seen of Kakashi's face but from his right eye, you could tell that he was smiling.

"Well Tsunade – sama, I'll make sure to do that. It will be done in the next few hours. I'll go find out more from Hinata and Sakura."

Kakashi Hatake closed his orange book and left the room to carry out his duties. Lady Tsunade stood at the foot of Naruto's bed for a while. She stared at the blond goofball and couldn't help but smile at how carefree and peaceful he looked.

The time she had spent with Naruto had really affected her as a person. Before she had met Naruto, she did not care about the matters of others too much. The deaths of her younger brother and her lover had made her cold to the world. The abandonment of her former teammate Orochimaru had also had a negative effect on her. As much as she hated to admit it, she missed all of those three; they were important people to her. But meeting Naruto had made her remember the happiness of those old days. It had made her remember the time where she had loved ones to care for.

Naruto's likeness to her younger brother had ensured that he occupied a special place in her heart; so she would do whatever was best for him. If that meant keeping him in the hospital for another week, she would do so.

With those thoughts in her head, Tsunade turned away from Naruto and walked towards the door leaving a sleeping Naruto on the hospital bed.

Kakashi walked down the corridor towards the room Sakura was resting. He felt that he should check up on his student first before checking on Hinata as the records clearly described Sakura's injuries as being more severe than the rest of the team. But if he was going to be truthful with himself, he just wanted to check up on his own student before anyone else's.

Kakashi reached the hospital door of Sakura's room. He grabbed the handle and slowly turned it clockwise; not wanting to make too much noise, he made sure to softly close the door shut. In the corner of the room Captain Yamato was sitting down and nodded in acknowledgement of Kakashi's presence. He rose to leave the room. He did not feel that he would be useful with Kakashi around. He decided to go and check up on Naruto.

Sakura looked to be in a reasonable condition. A far cry from when he discovered her at the village gate…

Kakashi, Might Guy and Yamato came to meet the team on their way to Konoha's gate. Kakashi was very worried about Naruto, Hinata and Sakura; yes, he knew Anko was with them but anything to do with Orochimaru was dangerous. Besides, his instincts told him that the team needed him. Kakashi's instincts were rarely wrong.

He told Might Guy and Yamato that he was going to the village gate to meet the squad when they arrived – because of his unease. The other two jounin offered to accompany Kakashi on the journey and Kakashi duly obliged.

When Kakashi and the other two jounin reached the gate, Kakashi was just about to summon his troop of ninja dogs to smell Naruto's trail so he could go after him; that was until three young ninja appeared in the ground thirty metres away from the village gate.

Kakashi knew that the three were Naruto, Sakura and Hinata; he felt relieved and comforted by this knowledge and started towards the three young ninja. Half way on his path towards the three young ninja, he noticed two things that were wrong…

One, Anko was not with them… and two, the three teens not only looked dishevelled, they looked like they were about to collapse.

The three jounin raced towards the clearly exhausted group and caught them just before they hit the ground. Exchanging looks of worry between them, the three jounin carried one member on their back and took them to Konoha General Hospital. Kakashi waited at Naruto's bedside until Tsunade came in and spoke to him and then soon after that, Naruto woke up and then the current series of events played out.

But now, he needed to get information from Sakura. So he decided to wait and let her recover. Most of her injuries were internal and aggravating the situation further would only harm Sakura. Kakashi felt that Sakura needed all the sleep she could get. A fit and awake Sakura was better than a tired half-recovered Sakura. He decided to sit and wait in the corner of the room on one of the brown cushioned chairs until she awoke.

Two hours later, Sakura stirred in her sleep. From what Kakashi could make out it seemed she was muttering something about Kabuto taking someone to the depths. Earlier, He considered leaving here to check on Hinata, but considering the condition Sakura was in, Kakashi would have to make sure he caught Sakura awake when he could.

Kakashi could hear Sakura mumble incoherently for a few minutes before she stopped and woke up – groggy but looking much better than before.

She moved her pink hair away from her face with her right hand and spotted Kakashi Hatake – her former mentor and leader of team 7 – in the corner of the room.

"…Kakashi- sensei… Is there something wrong?" Sakura asked uncertainly. She feared that her former mentor might have been in the room only to relay an urgent message about her condition. She was starting to fear the worst. She felt fine and as a medical ninja she was confident in her assessment of her physical condition… but if Lady Tsunade had checked on Sakura's condition and found something problematic…

"NO!" Sakura thought to herself. "I'm fine. I know I am! Kakashi is probably here to ask about the mission. I wouldn't be in such a condition if I was badly injured… right?" Sakura contemplated.

Kakashi could sense some tension from Sakura and in an effort to dispel the tension, Kakashi said:

"Sakura-san, do not worry. Everything's fine and you seem to be in a better condition than you were in a few minutes ago. I came here to ask you about what happened at Orochimaru's base. What happened to you, Anko, Naruto and Hinata?"

Sakura breathed out a sigh of relief. It had not been what she feared. She then nodded her head to show that she would relay the details to Kakashi and began to speak.

She spoke for over thirty minutes, relaying every detail of the mission:

…From spotting the two lookout ninja and neutralizing them…

Entering the horrid cave…

Anko's nervousness and apparent fear…

Having to split up into two groups…

Being paired with Anko and running into Kabuto and then fighting him – sustaining some internal injuries in the process…

Anko being taken away by Kabuto…

Being found by Naruto and Hinata, eventually escaping the cave, and travelling all the way back to Konoha…

Throughout the thirty minutes, Kakashi listened intently. He absorbed every word Sakura uttered. He was mildly surprised at Anko showing fear but was more surprised at the appearance of Kabuto. Even more so when he found out about the state Kabuto was in; for Kabuto to really go that far and absorb Orochimaru's DNA… he must have had a twisted obsession with Orochimaru.

"Thank you Sakura-san for the information. The Hokage knows most of this already but the information on Kabuto is new. I'll let her know as soon as I'm done talking with Hinata." Kakashi said. "Now Sakura-san, rest up and feel better in the morning. I'll see you later." Kakashi said in a fatherly tone and left the room leaving Sakura to lie back on her bed and think about the doomed mission further.

Kakashi closed the door of Sakura's room and leaned on the wall outside of it. His former student had been through so much and he truly hoped that she would recover but for now he had to find Hinata. Naruto mentioned something about information on Sasuke before. Something that would happen to Sasuke in a years time.

From Sakura's information, Naruto was paired up with Hinata. If he was paired up with Hinata then surely she would also know about this information as well.

Kakashi set off down the corridor. What would happen to his former prized student in a year's time?

He needed to know…

* * *

**Author's note:**

**A short one this time. Thank you for reading. Check -when you can - for chapter 8.**


	8. Chapter 8 - Mortuus in anno

**Shout out time.**

**Rose Tiger: Intro to it in Chapter 8, full conversation in chapter 9. **

**gamerlover41592: I hope that didn't upset you too much. I guess everything needs a build up, besides I can't become too predictable now can I? **

**Socky the not so Subtle: I will. Until the bitter end. However, there will be no bitter endings in this story. **

**123pearlshipping: Thank you! I'm glad you think so and I'll make sure to give you fanfic a look. I personally think that there is room for improvement in my writing style and this story but I'll make do with the skills I have right now.**

**Last but not least, Psycho G: You might have guessed that length – of chapters – is a bit of an issue for me. (I added that line in there because without it, the next bit would sound bad and I'm avoiding any innuendos this week). I'll work on that. You already know – as I PM'd you – but for everyone else, Karin will just die as she has no real significance in my story and it will be a good device to show how far Sasuke has fallen. On your other question all I can say is we shall see..**

**Anyway…**

**ON WITH THE STORY!**

Kakashi reached Hinata Hyuga's hospital door and knocked. Once he received a reply, he turned the handle and entered.

The first thing he noticed about the room was the intense smell of lavender that permeated the air. Kakashi noticed – with his enhanced sense of smell – that the focus of the smell was Hinata. Although there lavender flowers were at her window, Hinata Hyuga smelled more like lavender than the flowers themselves.

Kakashi turned to look over at the young Hyuga heir and saw that she was already looking at him in anticipation, waiting to know why he was here.

She seemed to be in perfectly fine condition.

Knowing that he had Hinata's full attention right now, Kakashi said,

"Hello Hinata-san. How're you feeling?"

"Much better Kakashi-sama. Thank you for asking. Ko-san has just gone out to get me some fruits so he should be back soon." Hinata responded politely, mildly surprised by the fact Kakashi was even in the room.

Kakashi did not want to waste time on any more formalities and so he immediately asked Hinata,

"What exactly happened in Orochimaru's cave Hinata-san? I heard you found some information regarding Sasuke. Could you tell me what it was?"

Hinata had thought that one of the reasons Kakashi would visit her was to find out about the information on Sasuke.

She did not want to insult Kakashi by stalling so she told Kakashi about the lab that she and Naruto had come across.

"In Orochimaru's lab, there were half formed bodies in glass tubes and dissected organisms everywhere. The smell was horrible Kakashi-sama." Hinata said sadly, maintaining eye contact with Kakashi.

"Deep inside in the lab, there was a desk with a stack of papers piled on it. Naruto and I looked through each drawer and found two secret compartments. In one compartment, we found Orochimaru's notes on Shinigami that seemed to appear with some 'Reaper Death God' jutsu." Hinata continued, sustaining her downcast tone.

"In the other secret compartment, we found a twenty page thick medical report with a picture of Sasuke on the top right hand corner of the first page. It had a lot of his medical data; such as his current condition, experiments that had been performed on him to improve his body and something else that was really… saddening…" Hinata said, averting her gaze from Kakashi and to the floor.

"We found out that the hatred and anger Sasuke carried inside of him was intensifying his chakra." Hinata continued. "The report stated that all the hate in him is causing his chakra to become far too concentrated and dark; therefore having adverse effects on his body. The report mentioned something about Sasuke being a descendant of one of the two 'legendary sons', but for some reason, Sasuke has a strange gene that causes his emotion to have an increased effect on his chakra – more so than compared to a normal person. From the report, we gathered that Sasuke's intense chakra will 'consume' him. If he does not find peace, the chakra will corrode and destroy his body. As his Uchiha blood only intensifies chakra, the damage is happening at an alarming rate. According to the medical report, if Sasuke doesn't find peace within a year… the damage will be irreparable after that time and he will die…" Hinata finished, trying her hardest not to look at Kakashi's face.

Kakashi could not believe what he had just heard. After everything he tried to save his precious student from destroying himself on the path of revenge, now he knew that all his efforts were in vain; finding out that another person would be added to the list of people he could not save… it hurt him more than any blade or jutsu could.

He could not save his former teammates…

Obito…

Rin…

… and now he could not save Sasuke.

Yes, the possibility of helping Sasuke find that peace he so desperately needed still existed… but after all the efforts of everyone so far… After all of Naruto's and Sakura's efforts… it seemed far too unlikely that Sasuke would ever let go of his hatred.

In the back of Kakashi's mind, he felt that finding Sasuke and telling him about this condition currently affecting him might bring some sense to Sasuke; but Sasuke was an avenger. As long as he achieved the revenge he felt was fitting, nothing else would matter to Sasuke.

Still, Kakashi felt that he had to know more about how he could help Sasuke, anything that could change the course of destiny so he asked Hinata, in a strained voice:

"What kind of 'peace' does he need to find?"

"Naruto and I couldn't find anything to answer that question in the laboratory. We could only assume that it would mean peace between Sasuke and Itachi…" Hinata said, in a downcast tone.

"I'm sorry Kakashi-sama…" Hinata said, continuing to look at the ground.

Kakashi saw the sadness Hinata was feeling at having to break the bad news to him and he immediately did his best to try to put on a brave face to comfort her.

"You have nothing to apologize for Hinata-san. In fact, I should be thanking you for letting me know about this. I am in your debt Hinata-san." Kakashi said, with as much positivity as he could muster.

Hinata looked up at Kakashi and could make out that he was smiling. She returned his smile with a wan version of hers. She knew that although Kakashi was smiling on the outside, inside this situation with Sasuke was killing him.

Just at that moment Ko Hyuga – Hinata's bodyguard and attendant – returned to the room. Kakashi, having all the information he needed and not wanting to become an awkward presence, decided to leave.

"All right Hinata-san, I'll leave you to recover; besides it's getting late. Rest up and get stronger. Goodnight." Kakashi said in a voice mixed with so many emotions.

Kakashi Hatake nodded towards Ko Hyuga in acknowledgement, turned away from Hinata and walked through the door and out of the room.

_**The next day, around 6:00 am…**_

Hinata Hyuga woke up feeling physically refreshed. However, she could not forget about Kakashi's visit yesterday.

Hinata's sight extended beyond her impressive bloodline; she could clearly see the distress that Kakashi was in after finding out about Sasuke, because of that Hinata felt some sadness as well.

She never really had much of an interest in Sasuke Uchiha – unlike most of the other girls in the village – but he was a comrade of hers and she knew that Naruto deeply cared for Sasuke. If this news hurt Naruto, it also hurt her. She hated to see Naruto upset and could only imagine how torn up he must have felt inside after finding out that all his efforts to save Sasuke were almost in vain.

Hinata felt like she should do something for Naruto to cheer him up. She only wanted him to be happy and so decided to get out of her bed and get dressed. As she felt that she was well enough for discharge today, she decided to press the bell for the nurse. Two minutes after pressing the bell a nurse came to Hinata's room and asked her what was the matter. Hinata explained. After hearing her explanation, the nurse called for a doctor. An old man came into the room and gave Hinata a routine check up. Hinata seemed to pass everyone one of his tests comfortably and when the doctor was satisfied with the results, he contacted the Hyuga household to send someone over to pick Hinata up.

Ten minutes later, Ko Hyuga appeared in Hinata's doorway, smiling.

"Well Hinata-sama, you look much better! Let me get your bags for you." Ko said in an upbeat tone – hoping to dispel the faint sadness on Hinata's face.

"Yes, Arigatou Ko-san." Hinata said.

Whilst Ko Hyuga was preparing for Hinata's leave, Hinata's mind was elsewhere. She had planned to go home and shower. Once she had finished showering, she was determined to go and find Naruto and talk to him. If any time to talk to him was best, now was the time. Whilst he was resting in hospital, she could have a proper conversation with him without any distraction or fear he may have to go on a mission. Considering his large chakra reserves, Naruto would not be at the hospital for much longer. She knew she would need to catch him before he went out on duty again.

"Could we make sure we're back at the compound as soon as possible Ko-san? I have to prepare for some urgent business." Hinata said.

"Yes Hinata-sama, as soon as possible" Ko Hyuga said with a smile to let Hinata know that there would be no reason to worry.

Five minutes later, Ko had packed all of Hinata's belongings and they had left for the Hyuga compound.

The two Hyuga reached the compound ten minutes later.

Hinata turned to Ko and bowed her head in gratitude before swiftly walking to the shower.

Before she turned the corner, Ko shouted out after Hinata,

"I'll let your father and Hanabi-sama know that you're back."

Hinata did not turn back at Ko's words, she simply maintained her pace and continued walking to her personal shower.

Ten minutes later, Hinata walked out of the shower room and got dressed. Once she had finished tending to herself, she walked to the main branch's dining room and saw food prepared on the table with a note.

Written on the note was a message from Ko.

"I made sure to prepare breakfast for you Hinata-sama. I know that you usually make your own but as you have just come back from the hospital, I assumed you would need a helping hand. I hope you will find this helpful. Have a nice day."

Hinata smiled at the note and silently thanked Ko for his help. She sat down and looked at the meal in front of her. She did not realise how hungry she was; the food at the hospital was bland at best so to finally have a home-cooked after that was fantastic.

Eating Ko's dish of Steamed Rice, Miso soup, Natto, Nori, Tamagoyaki, broiled fish and Tsukemono was simply bliss. Remembering that she had a strict time limit, Hinata quickly savoured the meal and its flavours before putting her dishes into the sink.

She then walked out of the room quickly and continued towards the compound gates before leaving.

Hinata ran as fast as she could towards Konoha general. It took her a few minutes to reach the entrance.

As soon as she entered the building, she walked over to the receptionist and asked if Naruto Uzumaki was still inside the hospital. The receptionist looked down at her records of accommodation and let Hinata know that Naruto was still in the building.

Hinata ran off down the corridor towards Naruto's room whilst hearing the receptionist shout out after her:

"Don't you want to hear what room he is staying in?"

Hinata did not need to wait for that information, as she had Ko find his room when she was staying at the hospital and had Ko tell her the room number.

When Hinata reached room 69, she paused. She knew once that she knocked on the door she would have to meet any rejection or acceptance waiting on the other side.

Nevertheless, she did not care.

All that mattered to her was Naruto. She would go through a million deaths to find a way into his life; a simple door would not stop her.

Hinata Hyuga knocked on the door and heard Naruto's voice respond, allowing entry.

Hinata opened the door and walked in. The sight of Naruto – in his signature orange and black tracksuit – with a bunch of travel bags on his back and his arm met her. He looked disgruntled but as soon as he saw Hinata, his expression changed and he felt a small smile creep onto his face.

As soon as Hinata came into the room, Naruto felt his mood lift. He had been feeling morose before she came into the room. The situation with Sasuke, the situation with Sakura, the situation he was in now – no one to take him home apart from either Kakashi or Lady Tsunade – and the situation with Hinata had really been bothering him for the past few days. It was already bad enough that he was in hospital, but the fact that he had those problems to think of as well only made things tougher for him. He had to face these problems; he was not allowed to do anything else that would take his mind off them. Enduring these problems for the last few days had been one of the hardest battles he had ever fought and if he was going to be completely honest with himself, he barely made it through this time.

In particular, he had been thinking of how to fix the mess he made with Hinata when all of a sudden, she walked into the room. As soon as she entered the room, everything else became insignificant. Even Sasuke went to the back of his mind for a few seconds. The sight of her beauty in the doorway was something that astounded him.

"Hinata-chan…" Naruto said in a breathless voice that lay on the border of positivity.

Hinata blushed at the use of that suffix. She still could not believe that Naruto used it on her.

"Naruto-kun, I was looking for you. I-I want to talk to you. Do you have time right now?" Hinata said, fighting her anxiety with each word in an effort to find a solution for this mess.

"Yeah… I have plenty of time I guess... I mean, I was just about to leave but the medical staff said I had to remain here until an adult who is responsible for me comes to pick me up or I get Baa-chan's permission; as you know… I don't have too many people who fit the criteria." Naruto said, with a pained smile.

Hinata met Naruto's gaze and immediately felt bad. She really wished she could have helped him.

Nevertheless, she would do her best now to make sure he did not fall further into despair.

"Funnily enough Hinata-chan, I was going to find you when I left the hospital. But this is good too." Naruto continued, still with a cheery edge to his largely downcast voice.

"I was going to find you to talk about the mission and some… other things." Naruto said, blushing at the last part of that sentence.

In an unreadable voice, Naruto asked Hinata:

"Shall we…"

* * *

**Authors note:**

**I remember when I started I said I would not be writing chapters that were over 3000 words long… I wonder how long it will take me to eat my own words…**

**One thing to mention, there have been some irregularities in the use of Japanese phrases. I put that down to the fact that I only wanted to use them when appropriate.**

**The ingredients for Hinata's breakfast are real ingredients for a traditional Japanese breakfast (honest). Google "traditional Japanese breakfast" to learn more about it. Personally, I really want to try one out.**

**Updates will be irregular but most likely on weekends (as I said before) and I'll start proof reading my previous chapters as some grammatical errors have been pointed out. We can't have that now can we…**

**Thank you all, again, for reading the fanfic. I cannot tell you how cool it is to see that this story has a bit of a following now. To some, 33 favourites and 35 followers may not mean much… but to me, I cannot say enough times how great it is to see such numbers.**


	9. Chapter 9 - Time to mend

**[A/N: This chapter has been proof read and edited. Now it is a bit better to read as the first upload was sloppy. Edits have been done to most of the previous chapters (apart from 7,8 and 9), the rest will be done eventually.]**

**First things first, I AM NOT GOING SAKURA-BASH (well not too much), but I am going to highlight the major flaws in her character design during my story – and her absence of manners towards Naruto.**

**Now to the shout outs (there are more than usual, but there's a reason to this. It's in the author's note at the end, if you want to skip the shout-outs and go to the story, please go ahead):**

**Gaiseric: Thank you very much for your review, I absolutely enjoyed reading it. The analysis on Sakura was excellent and to everyone reading this, I fully recommend setting aside some time to discuss the Naruto story and topics with this dude. I hope you enjoy this chapter ****Gaiseric**.

**vidkhusul: Thank you very much, it's nice to see new reviewers. Hope you enjoy the chapter.**

**gamelover41592: I hope this chapter doesn't classify as Sakura-bashing. That was not my intention.**

**blaknaruto11: Thank you very much for the continued support. In answer to your question man, I really don't know. It's quite ironic how Naruto has better values and a better disposition than Sakura- who has been raised in the desirable family template as opposed to Naruto who raised himself.**

**Psycho G: I figured you'd like the clearance of the misunderstanding. Great analysis as always. It seems a lot of people share your views. Hope you enjoy the chapter.**

**Arba: Thanks for the praise.**

**Rose Tiger: ahaha! Sakura seems to have that effect on people.**

**Chemo: Good point. I admit that was a mistake, I apologize if it's affected the story for you.**

**mocokikin64: I could feel the NaruHina passion from your review! Hopefully you end up loving this story as much as you love NaruHina. Enjoy the story.**

**jessejames.3762: Thank you very much. Hopefully this chapter lives up to the cliffhanger.**

**Chewie Cookies: Thank you very much. Hopefully you enjoy this chapter.**

**reddevil47: Glad to see you enjoy it. Glad to see you're a new reviewer. Glad to see you're a Man Utd fan. :D**

**Anyway…**

**ON WITH THE STORY…**

Hinata activated her Byakugan and scanned all 361 chakra points in Sakura's body. From her analysis, Hinata could see that Sakura's right hand had a massive build up of chakra.

Hinata knew that she needed to avoid Sakura's right hand at all costs, as one hit from that right fist would spell the end of this fight for her.

One factor that helped Hinata was Sakura's rage. Sakura's rage would make her attacks wild and irrational.

Hinata was also angry, but she had learnt a long time ago that the best thing to do when she was angry was to channel that anger into power. The harsh treatment she received from her clan when she was younger had finally become useful.

With this knowledge, Hinata started to plan a counter-attack.

Hinata knew that she could strike Sakura on her neck and cleanly end this fight however; Hinata did not want to cause severe injury to Sakura.

Even though Sakura did not show Naruto the same compassion, Hinata did not want to take the risk - as she could not guarantee that Sakura would recover fully if she hit her on the neck. Furthermore, if Hinata missed this particular chakra point in the neck - even by a centimetre - and hit a muscle instead… Sakura would become a permanent paraplegic.

There was another option. If Hinata could strike one of the chakra points on Sakura's arm, she could immobilise Sakura and prevent serious injury to her.

Hinata readied herself for action. Sakura was no more than a metre away from Hinata when she noticed that Sakura's left hand was reaching for her kunai pouch attached to the outer side of her right leg. Hinata made a mental note to keep track of that left hand.

She then smiled at this knowledge.

With this knowledge, Hinata started to plan a counter-attack. Hinata's calm fury guided her hands as she braced for impact.

Meanwhile, the only thing that Sakura could see was the red mist of anger. When Sakura saw Hinata's smile, she became further enraged. She had wanted to get as close to Hinata as possible so that she could unleash the deadly blow.

However, Sakura had taken into account the fact that Hinata had her Byakugan and therefore expected that Hinata would do her best to avoid her right hand at all costs. In essence, Sakura was making Hinata focus on her right hand so she could prepare for her actual attack.

Sakura moved her left hand near her chemical kunai pouch so she could reach for her poison laced kunais. She made sure to choose a non-lethal poison kunai, as she did not want to kill Hinata – she just wanted to cause her pain.

Sakura started to smile maniacally as she got closer and closer to the stationary Hinata.

However, Sakura's anger made her forget that if Hinata's eyesight could allow her to see the build up of chakra in her right hand, Hinata could most definitely see her other hand that was reaching for the chemical kunai pouch. Sakura's anger made her fail to evaluate her plan and actions. If she had kept a calm and cool head, she may have seen such a glaring fault within her plan.

When Sakura finally reached Hinata, she propelled her chakra-filled right hand forward. Hinata swiftly moved to her left and effortlessly avoided the punch. Sakura felt her right hand connect with the ground Hinata was previously standing upon, leaving a large crater in the floor. Sakura could not help but be impressed by Hinata's speed.

Hinata quick movement allowed her enough time to glance at the impact of the punch. Sweating slightly - in worry - at the punch's destructive force, Hinata readied herself to strike. She rushed forward and was about to lunge at Sakura but Sakura's suspicious left hand sprung out. Clenched in her left hand was a dripping kunai. Hinata immediately realised why it was dripping – it was laced with poison.

Hinata reacted quickly by jumping backwards – away from Sakura and the deadly kunai.

Sakura however, was not simply going to allow Hinata to escape her attack. The pink haired *kunoichi charged forward to close the distance between herself and the Hyuga heir.

Hinata landed tidily and saw Sakura's wild charge. Hinata could almost feel her opening to attack appear any second now.

As soon as Sakura reached Hinata, she swiped at Hinata's head with the lethal kunai but missed as the violet haired Hinata swiftly ducked downward.

Ducking downwards finally allowed Hinata to see her opening to attack. She streaked forward and struck Sakura's left arm; causing her to drop her kunai. However, Hinata did not make a clean connection with the chakra point in Sakura's left arm and so Sakura still had mobility in her left arm.

Gritting her teeth in pain, Sakura wildly swung her left arm out in retaliation, hoping to connect with Hinata's face – and to confirm that she could still move her left arm. However, Hinata back flipped gracefully and landed – cat-like – a few metres away from her adversary.

They stared into each other's eyes. Both female ninja were breathing comfortably, even after that intense exchange – although, Sakura looked to be in a worse shape than Hinata.

Sakura was extremely frustrated at her lack of progress in this battle.

"When did Hinata become this good?! When did she become so skilled? How do I take her down quickly?! How do I take her down at all?!" Sakura thought.

Sakura reached into her equipment pouch and grabbed a sleeping pellet. She then rushed forward and dropped the sleeping pellet onto the ground – which created a large cloud of chemical smoke.

Sakura assumed that even if Hinata's Byakugan allowed her to see through the smoke, the sleeping chemical would affect her other senses and give her time to create a trap for Hinata.

However, Hinata knew that Sakura had used a sleeping pellet, as she had made sure to learn all about smoke pellets and their effects from her teammate Kiba.

With this knowledge, Hinata decided to create a few clones to distract Sakura and buy herself time. She decided to emulate Naruto however; she could not use the shadow clone technique that he could – as it took extraordinary chakra reserves. Nevertheless, she was able to use the basic version of the technique to create illusions of herself that would most likely confuse Sakura and give Hinata a chance to close the gap between herself and her adversary.

Both Hinata (with her clones) and Sakura jumped out of the dangerous smoke cloud and landed quite a few metres apart from each other.

As soon as they landed, Hinata and her clones raced forward towards Sakura to begin her barrage.

Hinata made sure to attack just after her first clone did. Once Sakura punched through the first clone, Hinata used her Byakugan and saw a weak point in Sakura's torso. The young Hyuga made up her mind, lunged forward with her right hand and connected with the intended target.

Hinata's clones dispelled as soon her hand connected with Sakura's torso. Both kunoichi held their stances.

Hinata kept her right hand pressed on Sakura's torso to make sure the damage was done; Sakura kept still due to the intense pain of the blow.

Almost as if she was confirming that Hinata's aim was true, Sakura started to cough out blood.

Sakura could not believe that the quiet and timid Hinata – who had never really shown much prowess as a ninja in Sakura's eyes – had managed to land a significant blow on herself.

In anger, Sakura reacted quickly. With as much force as she could muster, Sakura punched down as hard as she could on Hinata's still connected arm.

Then next thing that was heard in the clearing beneath the window of Konoha general was Hinata's sickening scream and the sickening crack of Hinata's now broken right arm. Sakura then pulled away and created distance between herself and Hinata.

Sakura smiled menacingly as soon as she saw the young Hyuga heir clutching her right arm in pain.

Like a lion ready to pounce on an injured gazelle, Sakura started forwards to finally finish off her adversary. Yet, as she attempted to step forward, Sakura immediately froze.

The menacing smile fell from her beautifully twisted face as she coughed up more blood.

Hinata had hurt her more than she expected.

Sakura fell to her knees.

As soon as Sakura hit her, Hinata instantly knew that her arm had been broken. However, she would not let the pain stop her from beating Sakura. She could also see that Sakura was nearing her limit. This meant that for both of them, the next attack would be their last in this battle.

Sakura could also sense that this battle was nearing its conclusion. She felt that she should say something to give her an edge over Hinata. Sakura had hoped that she could score some verbal points on Hinata and possibly weaken her will.

"Hinata, this battle will be over soon. I've broken your arm and your chakra is running low. I can end your pain if you simply admit that you were wrong and I was right. If you take back your words, I'll heal you right here, right now. What will it be?" Sakura said.

Hinata could not believe what she had just heard.

How could Sakura still think that she could talk down to her?

After all the damage Hinata had dealt to Sakura just now, after Hinata's actions against Pein, after all of the training Hinata had gone through to become stronger, did Sakura still just see Hinata as the weak lamb of the Hyuga clan? Did Sakura still not feel the change in the balance of power?

These thoughts caused Hinata to feel a renewed strength. Another wave of calm fury descended over Hinata from Sakura's comments. Hinata would no longer sit back and take this disrespect.

"You're right Sakura-san, this battle will be over soon however… it will be you who will need my help by the end of it." Hinata said, charging up chakra in her left hand and eventually causing her chakra to form into the shape of a blue lion's head around her clenched left fist.

Sakura's anger flared as soon as she heard Hinata's words and she immediately started to build up chakra in her right hand. The build up of chakra became so intense it became visible glowing glove.

Whilst the two kunoichi were busy focusing on each other and the attacks that they were preparing, they failed to notice one young man who was groggily regaining his senses.

Naruto's body was in extreme pain from Sakura's earlier punch. He had wanted to move earlier but his body just could not obey his commands.

When he did finally come to his senses, he saw Hinata and Sakura facing each other; each with pained and acrimonious expressions painted across their beautiful faces.

He saw Sakura bleeding from her mouth and Hinata's hand bent at an awkward angle. He could also make out an intense chakra build up in Hinata's left hand and Sakura's right hand.

Naruto was not sure what exactly had been going on but he had heard Sakura proclaiming that she broke Hinata's arm and Hinata's reply. Naruto could not stand by and let two people that he held dear fight each other and continue to hurt each other.

The next thing he saw was Sakura and Hinata both rushing forward to attack each other. The potential disaster that their attacks could bring gave Naruto new strength. He immediately got up and ran forward to stop the young kunoichi from hurting each other.

From the corner of their eyes Hinata and Sakura could see an orange and black blur racing towards them. By the time the young females realised who this orange and black blur was racing towards them, it was too late.

There was a blinding explosion and then an unnatural calm.

Soon there was a spray of blood and both Sakura and Hinata's vision became crimson with blood.

They both wiped the blood from their vision and looked up.

That was when they saw that the orange and black blur had put itself in between their attacks.

Then, both kunoichi looked up at the orange and black blur and recognised the blond hair and the whiskered face. The orange and black blur was facing Hinata and facing away from Sakura. When both Hinata and Sakura realised whom they had hit, they completely stopped.

Sandwiched in between the two female's attacks was Naruto.

They both managed to punch two holes right through him; one through his right shoulder – via Sakura – and one through the right side of his stomach – via Hinata.

Naruto realised whilst he was running towards the two young women that he would not be able to form any hand seals in time to make shadow clones that would absorb the attack, so he decided he would take their attacks head-on. He counted on his extraordinary chakra reserves and the nine-tailed fox inside of him to help him survive the attack; but there was no guarantee of him surviving.

Naruto could feel himself fading away. The sides of his vision darkened and his hearing became muffled. However, Naruto did not mind the last thing he saw in this world being Hinata.

The situation was quite ironic. Naruto had been caught in the crossfire – of this battle and of the two young women's affections.

Hinata could feel the warmth of Naruto's insides and his blood soaking her now limp left hand. She felt horrified by what she had done. Her attack did not meet her intended target instead; it had met the one person she never wanted to hurt, the one person she was fighting for right now, Naruto.

"N…Naruto-kun? Naruto-kun… No… NO… NARUTO-KUN! I'M SORRY! I'm so sorry!" Hinata cried. Her voice tailed off in despair towards the end of her apology. She simply could not believe that she had done this to Naruto.

For the first time in years, Hinata wept. Not even the harsh treatment of her clan had managed to bring tears to her, for she always had Naruto to look up to; but now, she had severely hurt the one thing that brought light to her life... Naruto.

Hinata gently removed her bloodied hand from Naruto's torso with a grisly squelch and grabbed Naruto.

Sakura could not speak. She was numb with shock. She had launched her fist right through his shoulder and hurt Naruto again.

Sakura also removed her right fist and attempted to help Naruto keep standing.

Naruto started to smile as he was face to face with Hinata. Her hand felt so warm; so gentle, yet so deadly.

Naruto did not want Hinata to cry.

"Hinata-chan…" Naruto coughed out "Don't cry… As long… as y… you're safe… I'll be fi…" Naruto tried to say but started coughing up huge amounts of blood before dropping to the ground.

"NARUTO!" Sakura screamed, "DON'T LEAVE ME! PLEASE PULL THROUGH! I'M SO SORRY!" Sakura continued.

"Sakura-chan, don't feel bad... You were about… to be hurt and… I had to… I swore to p… protect you…" Naruto coughed out before closing his eyes and going still.

Sakura looked at her bloodied fist that she just removed from the newly created cavity in Naruto's right shoulder and started to form chakra in her hands. She swiftly placed her pulsing hands on Naruto and started to try to heal him.

After two minutes, she managed to close up both wounds created by herself and Hinata.

Naruto's external injuries had been closed up, but the internal damage was severe.

If this were anyone else, Sakura would have accepted that they could not be saved, but this was Naruto. In the past, he had pulled through many certain death situations and Sakura had belief that he could do it again.

However, Sakura was running low on chakra and would not be able to continue healing Naruto much longer. With his injuries this severe, Hinata would not be able to heal Naruto effectively - as Hinata's medical skill was not up to a level capable of healing this type of injury. In addition, Hinata's right arm was broken meaning she would simply not be able to carry out any form of medical procedure.

Sakura and Hinata were silent with shock as they looked down at the broken mess that was Naruto. Whilst Sakura was doing her best to tend to Naruto, Hinata could only stand still in shock looking at her broken love.

"I'm running out of chakra… Naruto, don't give in…" Sakura said feebly.

Suddenly, Sakura found herself in an internal battle.

"LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE SAKURA!" Inner Sakura said, with an 'I told you so' tone.

"What have I said in the past?" Sakura's conscience continued. "You constantly mistreat and hurt Naruto and then scream for him when you need help. Now look at the result of years of maltreatment. If Naruto was your pet, he would have run away a long time ago; but Naruto is better than that – better than you are. Your lack of power as a ninja is going to make Naruto suffer." Inner Sakura continued. "I used to implicitly support you no matter how bad things became, we were a great team Sakura. Yet, I hate to admit that there is some truth to Hinata's words. I will always be on your side Sakura, but you also need to know that Naruto has become a good friend to you and you need to treat you friends better." Inner Sakura finished.

"NOT NOW YOU DAMNED CONSCIENCE!" Sakura roared internally. "YOU DON'T THINK I KNOW THAT?! YOU DON'T THINK I KNOW THAT I CAUSE NARUTO PAIN?! OF COURSE I KNOW AND I AM SINCERELY SORRY BUT WHY IS EVERYONE GETTING ON MY CASE WHEN IT COMES TO NARUTO?! HAS ANYONE ELSE IN THE VILLAGE TREATED HIM BETTER?! ESPECIALLY WHEN WERE GROWING UP, APART FROM KAKASHI-SENSEI, SASUKE-KUN AND I WHO ELSE GAVE NARUTO RECOGNITION WITHOUT HIM HAVING TO EARN IT?!" Sakura screeched internally.

"Well Sakura, if we're going to be asking questions... who else hits Naruto and belittles him in front of our peers as much as you do? Besides, if everyone is pointing something out, then it is there." Inner Sakura said calmly, before dissolving into the background, leaving Sakura with much to ponder.

After a few minutes of silent reflection – whilst healing Naruto – Sakura concluded her thoughts.

"Hinata-san…" Sakura said quietly, "I'm so sorry, this was my fault. If I had treated Naruto better he wouldn't be in this situation. I've been doing this for years, treating Naruto badly and expecting him to absorb the punishment. I didn't realise how far I would go. I never intended to hurt my dear friend. I'm so sorry Hinata… I'm so sorry Naruto." Sakura finished. Tears started to fall freely down her face and land on Naruto's chest.

"Sakura-san… It was also my fault. It takes two to fight... Naruto suffered due to the both of us. I'm also sorry Sakura-san." Hinata sobbed. Sakura looked up at Hinata in shock and then turned back to Naruto.

Sakura could feel her strength waning.

Naruto's breathing started to drop even further.

It looked like the end.

"SAKURA! HINATA! NAR-" A familiar voice shouted out. Sakura and Hinata turned around and saw Kakashi, Captain Yamato and Shizune appear and land on the ground metres away from them. It seemed that the one who called out to them was Captain Yamato.

"Sensei…" Sakura said in despair.

Kakashi, Captain Yamato and Shizune looked at the grim scene and saw a still and lifeless Naruto on the ground. The three jounin immediately raced forward.

"We received reports from ANBU of a loud disturbance within the area. The ANBU reported this to the Hokage instead of coming here themselves due to past events – you know, invasion of Konoha by Orochimaru – and she decided to send the three of us over here." Kakashi said hurriedly.

"What happened to Naruto?" Shizune asked hurriedly.

No one responded.

"Let me see what I can do." Shizune said as she raced forward to Naruto.

Shizune bent down and leant over Naruto. She charged her hands up with chakra and started to heal him.

From what it looked like, Naruto was in bad shape, however her healing seemed to stabilise his condition. Nevertheless, Shizune knew that she needed to get Naruto back to the hospital.

"Kakashi-senpai, Naruto needs to go back to hospital, his condition is critical at the moment. He needs proper medical attention or else he will die." Shizune said worriedly.

"All right, let's go. Hinata and Sakura, when we get to the hospital, you two will need to heal up and then... you're going to tell me exactly what happened." Kakashi said in a menacing tone.

The three jounin with Hinata, Naruto and Sakura set off as quickly as possible to the hospital.

**Author's note:**

***Kunoichi is the correct Japanese term for a female ninja. Or at least, the term used in Naruto.**

**I have a big announcement to make. There is a reason why I took so long to update this chapter. It is because I am taking very important A-Level exams in the coming months and after much deliberation, I have come to the decision that I need to focus on my studies. Therefore this will be the last chapter for a few months. I am putting this story on HIATUS. I apologize for letting anyone down and if it's any comfort this has been a really tough decision but I need to focus on my future and I need to put myself first.**

**It will most likely resume in June/July, however it is possible that I may forget about the story and stop writing it (with all these commitments something may have to give). This however, is highly unlikely and I will most likely continue to write the story to the end.**

**Thank you so much for your patience and support regarding this fanfic. I hope you will rejoin me when I finish off the story in a few months time.**

**Follow and favourite the story so you know first-hand when the new chapter comes out.**

**Have a nice day and thank you again for your continued support, you guys are the best.**


	10. Chapter 10 - Caught in the Crossfire

**[A/N: This chapter has been proof read and edited. Now it is a bit better to read as the first upload was sloppy. Edits have been done to most of the previous chapters (apart from 7,8 and 9), the rest will be done eventually.]**

**First things first, I AM NOT GOING SAKURA-BASH (well not too much), but I am going to highlight the major flaws in her character design during my story – and her absence of manners towards Naruto.**

**Now to the shout outs (there are more than usual, but there's a reason to this. It's in the author's note at the end, if you want to skip the shout-outs and go to the story, please go ahead):**

**Gaiseric: Thank you very much for your review, I absolutely enjoyed reading it. The analysis on Sakura was excellent and to everyone reading this, I fully recommend setting aside some time to discuss the Naruto story and topics with this dude. I hope you enjoy this chapter ****Gaiseric**.

**vidkhusul: Thank you very much, it's nice to see new reviewers. Hope you enjoy the chapter.**

**gamelover41592: I hope this chapter doesn't classify as Sakura-bashing. That was not my intention.**

**blaknaruto11: Thank you very much for the continued support. In answer to your question man, I really don't know. It's quite ironic how Naruto has better values and a better disposition than Sakura- who has been raised in the desirable family template as opposed to Naruto who raised himself.**

**Psycho G: I figured you'd like the clearance of the misunderstanding. Great analysis as always. It seems a lot of people share your views. Hope you enjoy the chapter.**

**Arba: Thanks for the praise.**

**Rose Tiger: ahaha! Sakura seems to have that effect on people.**

**Chemo: Good point. I admit that was a mistake, I apologize if it's affected the story for you.**

**mocokikin64: I could feel the NaruHina passion from your review! Hopefully you end up loving this story as much as you love NaruHina. Enjoy the story.**

**jessejames.3762: Thank you very much. Hopefully this chapter lives up to the cliffhanger.**

**Chewie Cookies: Thank you very much. Hopefully you enjoy this chapter.**

**reddevil47: Glad to see you enjoy it. Glad to see you're a new reviewer. Glad to see you're a Man Utd fan. :D**

**Anyway…**

**ON WITH THE STORY…**

Hinata activated her Byakugan and scanned all 361 chakra points in Sakura's body. From her analysis, Hinata could see that Sakura's right hand had a massive build up of chakra.

Hinata knew that she needed to avoid Sakura's right hand at all costs, as one hit from that right fist would spell the end of this fight for her.

One factor that helped Hinata was Sakura's rage. Sakura's rage would make her attacks wild and irrational.

Hinata was also angry, but she had learnt a long time ago that the best thing to do when she was angry was to channel that anger into power. The harsh treatment she received from her clan when she was younger had finally become useful.

With this knowledge, Hinata started to plan a counter-attack.

Hinata knew that she could strike Sakura on her neck and cleanly end this fight however; Hinata did not want to cause severe injury to Sakura.

Even though Sakura did not show Naruto the same compassion, Hinata did not want to take the risk - as she could not guarantee that Sakura would recover fully if she hit her on the neck. Furthermore, if Hinata missed this particular chakra point in the neck - even by a centimetre - and hit a muscle instead… Sakura would become a permanent paraplegic.

There was another option. If Hinata could strike one of the chakra points on Sakura's arm, she could immobilise Sakura and prevent serious injury to her.

Hinata readied herself for action. Sakura was no more than a metre away from Hinata when she noticed that Sakura's left hand was reaching for her kunai pouch attached to the outer side of her right leg. Hinata made a mental note to keep track of that left hand.

She then smiled at this knowledge.

With this knowledge, Hinata started to plan a counter-attack. Hinata's calm fury guided her hands as she braced for impact.

Meanwhile, the only thing that Sakura could see was the red mist of anger. When Sakura saw Hinata's smile, she became further enraged. She had wanted to get as close to Hinata as possible so that she could unleash the deadly blow.

However, Sakura had taken into account the fact that Hinata had her Byakugan and therefore expected that Hinata would do her best to avoid her right hand at all costs. In essence, Sakura was making Hinata focus on her right hand so she could prepare for her actual attack.

Sakura moved her left hand near her chemical kunai pouch so she could reach for her poison laced kunais. She made sure to choose a non-lethal poison kunai, as she did not want to kill Hinata – she just wanted to cause her pain.

Sakura started to smile maniacally as she got closer and closer to the stationary Hinata.

However, Sakura's anger made her forget that if Hinata's eyesight could allow her to see the build up of chakra in her right hand, Hinata could most definitely see her other hand that was reaching for the chemical kunai pouch. Sakura's anger made her fail to evaluate her plan and actions. If she had kept a calm and cool head, she may have seen such a glaring fault within her plan.

When Sakura finally reached Hinata, she propelled her chakra-filled right hand forward. Hinata swiftly moved to her left and effortlessly avoided the punch. Sakura felt her right hand connect with the ground Hinata was previously standing upon, leaving a large crater in the floor. Sakura could not help but be impressed by Hinata's speed.

Hinata quick movement allowed her enough time to glance at the impact of the punch. Sweating slightly - in worry - at the punch's destructive force, Hinata readied herself to strike. She rushed forward and was about to lunge at Sakura but Sakura's suspicious left hand sprung out. Clenched in her left hand was a dripping kunai. Hinata immediately realised why it was dripping – it was laced with poison.

Hinata reacted quickly by jumping backwards – away from Sakura and the deadly kunai.

Sakura however, was not simply going to allow Hinata to escape her attack. The pink haired *kunoichi charged forward to close the distance between herself and the Hyuga heir.

Hinata landed tidily and saw Sakura's wild charge. Hinata could almost feel her opening to attack appear any second now.

As soon as Sakura reached Hinata, she swiped at Hinata's head with the lethal kunai but missed as the violet haired Hinata swiftly ducked downward.

Ducking downwards finally allowed Hinata to see her opening to attack. She streaked forward and struck Sakura's left arm; causing her to drop her kunai. However, Hinata did not make a clean connection with the chakra point in Sakura's left arm and so Sakura still had mobility in her left arm.

Gritting her teeth in pain, Sakura wildly swung her left arm out in retaliation, hoping to connect with Hinata's face – and to confirm that she could still move her left arm. However, Hinata back flipped gracefully and landed – cat-like – a few metres away from her adversary.

They stared into each other's eyes. Both female ninja were breathing comfortably, even after that intense exchange – although, Sakura looked to be in a worse shape than Hinata.

Sakura was extremely frustrated at her lack of progress in this battle.

"When did Hinata become this good?! When did she become so skilled? How do I take her down quickly?! How do I take her down at all?!" Sakura thought.

Sakura reached into her equipment pouch and grabbed a sleeping pellet. She then rushed forward and dropped the sleeping pellet onto the ground – which created a large cloud of chemical smoke.

Sakura assumed that even if Hinata's Byakugan allowed her to see through the smoke, the sleeping chemical would affect her other senses and give her time to create a trap for Hinata.

However, Hinata knew that Sakura had used a sleeping pellet, as she had made sure to learn all about smoke pellets and their effects from her teammate Kiba.

With this knowledge, Hinata decided to create a few clones to distract Sakura and buy herself time. She decided to emulate Naruto however; she could not use the shadow clone technique that he could – as it took extraordinary chakra reserves. Nevertheless, she was able to use the basic version of the technique to create illusions of herself that would most likely confuse Sakura and give Hinata a chance to close the gap between herself and her adversary.

Both Hinata (with her clones) and Sakura jumped out of the dangerous smoke cloud and landed quite a few metres apart from each other.

As soon as they landed, Hinata and her clones raced forward towards Sakura to begin her barrage.

Hinata made sure to attack just after her first clone did. Once Sakura punched through the first clone, Hinata used her Byakugan and saw a weak point in Sakura's torso. The young Hyuga made up her mind, lunged forward with her right hand and connected with the intended target.

Hinata's clones dispelled as soon her hand connected with Sakura's torso. Both kunoichi held their stances.

Hinata kept her right hand pressed on Sakura's torso to make sure the damage was done; Sakura kept still due to the intense pain of the blow.

Almost as if she was confirming that Hinata's aim was true, Sakura started to cough out blood.

Sakura could not believe that the quiet and timid Hinata – who had never really shown much prowess as a ninja in Sakura's eyes – had managed to land a significant blow on herself.

In anger, Sakura reacted quickly. With as much force as she could muster, Sakura punched down as hard as she could on Hinata's still connected arm.

Then next thing that was heard in the clearing beneath the window of Konoha general was Hinata's sickening scream and the sickening crack of Hinata's now broken right arm. Sakura then pulled away and created distance between herself and Hinata.

Sakura smiled menacingly as soon as she saw the young Hyuga heir clutching her right arm in pain.

Like a lion ready to pounce on an injured gazelle, Sakura started forwards to finally finish off her adversary. Yet, as she attempted to step forward, Sakura immediately froze.

The menacing smile fell from her beautifully twisted face as she coughed up more blood.

Hinata had hurt her more than she expected.

Sakura fell to her knees.

As soon as Sakura hit her, Hinata instantly knew that her arm had been broken. However, she would not let the pain stop her from beating Sakura. She could also see that Sakura was nearing her limit. This meant that for both of them, the next attack would be their last in this battle.

Sakura could also sense that this battle was nearing its conclusion. She felt that she should say something to give her an edge over Hinata. Sakura had hoped that she could score some verbal points on Hinata and possibly weaken her will.

"Hinata, this battle will be over soon. I've broken your arm and your chakra is running low. I can end your pain if you simply admit that you were wrong and I was right. If you take back your words, I'll heal you right here, right now. What will it be?" Sakura said.

Hinata could not believe what she had just heard.

How could Sakura still think that she could talk down to her?

After all the damage Hinata had dealt to Sakura just now, after Hinata's actions against Pein, after all of the training Hinata had gone through to become stronger, did Sakura still just see Hinata as the weak lamb of the Hyuga clan? Did Sakura still not feel the change in the balance of power?

These thoughts caused Hinata to feel a renewed strength. Another wave of calm fury descended over Hinata from Sakura's comments. Hinata would no longer sit back and take this disrespect.

"You're right Sakura-san, this battle will be over soon however… it will be you who will need my help by the end of it." Hinata said, charging up chakra in her left hand and eventually causing her chakra to form into the shape of a blue lion's head around her clenched left fist.

Sakura's anger flared as soon as she heard Hinata's words and she immediately started to build up chakra in her right hand. The build up of chakra became so intense it became visible glowing glove.

Whilst the two kunoichi were busy focusing on each other and the attacks that they were preparing, they failed to notice one young man who was groggily regaining his senses.

Naruto's body was in extreme pain from Sakura's earlier punch. He had wanted to move earlier but his body just could not obey his commands.

When he did finally come to his senses, he saw Hinata and Sakura facing each other; each with pained and acrimonious expressions painted across their beautiful faces.

He saw Sakura bleeding from her mouth and Hinata's hand bent at an awkward angle. He could also make out an intense chakra build up in Hinata's left hand and Sakura's right hand.

Naruto was not sure what exactly had been going on but he had heard Sakura proclaiming that she broke Hinata's arm and Hinata's reply. Naruto could not stand by and let two people that he held dear fight each other and continue to hurt each other.

The next thing he saw was Sakura and Hinata both rushing forward to attack each other. The potential disaster that their attacks could bring gave Naruto new strength. He immediately got up and ran forward to stop the young kunoichi from hurting each other.

From the corner of their eyes Hinata and Sakura could see an orange and black blur racing towards them. By the time the young females realised who this orange and black blur was racing towards them, it was too late.

There was a blinding explosion and then an unnatural calm.

Soon there was a spray of blood and both Sakura and Hinata's vision became crimson with blood.

They both wiped the blood from their vision and looked up.

That was when they saw that the orange and black blur had put itself in between their attacks.

Then, both kunoichi looked up at the orange and black blur and recognised the blond hair and the whiskered face. The orange and black blur was facing Hinata and facing away from Sakura. When both Hinata and Sakura realised whom they had hit, they completely stopped.

Sandwiched in between the two female's attacks was Naruto.

They both managed to punch two holes right through him; one through his right shoulder – via Sakura – and one through the right side of his stomach – via Hinata.

Naruto realised whilst he was running towards the two young women that he would not be able to form any hand seals in time to make shadow clones that would absorb the attack, so he decided he would take their attacks head-on. He counted on his extraordinary chakra reserves and the nine-tailed fox inside of him to help him survive the attack; but there was no guarantee of him surviving.

Naruto could feel himself fading away. The sides of his vision darkened and his hearing became muffled. However, Naruto did not mind the last thing he saw in this world being Hinata.

The situation was quite ironic. Naruto had been caught in the crossfire – of this battle and of the two young women's affections.

Hinata could feel the warmth of Naruto's insides and his blood soaking her now limp left hand. She felt horrified by what she had done. Her attack did not meet her intended target instead; it had met the one person she never wanted to hurt, the one person she was fighting for right now, Naruto.

"N…Naruto-kun? Naruto-kun… No… NO… NARUTO-KUN! I'M SORRY! I'm so sorry!" Hinata cried. Her voice tailed off in despair towards the end of her apology. She simply could not believe that she had done this to Naruto.

For the first time in years, Hinata wept. Not even the harsh treatment of her clan had managed to bring tears to her, for she always had Naruto to look up to; but now, she had severely hurt the one thing that brought light to her life... Naruto.

Hinata gently removed her bloodied hand from Naruto's torso with a grisly squelch and grabbed Naruto.

Sakura could not speak. She was numb with shock. She had launched her fist right through his shoulder and hurt Naruto again.

Sakura also removed her right fist and attempted to help Naruto keep standing.

Naruto started to smile as he was face to face with Hinata. Her hand felt so warm; so gentle, yet so deadly.

Naruto did not want Hinata to cry.

"Hinata-chan…" Naruto coughed out "Don't cry… As long… as y… you're safe… I'll be fi…" Naruto tried to say but started coughing up huge amounts of blood before dropping to the ground.

"NARUTO!" Sakura screamed, "DON'T LEAVE ME! PLEASE PULL THROUGH! I'M SO SORRY!" Sakura continued.

"Sakura-chan, don't feel bad... You were about… to be hurt and… I had to… I swore to p… protect you…" Naruto coughed out before closing his eyes and going still.

Sakura looked at her bloodied fist that she just removed from the newly created cavity in Naruto's right shoulder and started to form chakra in her hands. She swiftly placed her pulsing hands on Naruto and started to try to heal him.

After two minutes, she managed to close up both wounds created by herself and Hinata.

Naruto's external injuries had been closed up, but the internal damage was severe.

If this were anyone else, Sakura would have accepted that they could not be saved, but this was Naruto. In the past, he had pulled through many certain death situations and Sakura had belief that he could do it again.

However, Sakura was running low on chakra and would not be able to continue healing Naruto much longer. With his injuries this severe, Hinata would not be able to heal Naruto effectively - as Hinata's medical skill was not up to a level capable of healing this type of injury. In addition, Hinata's right arm was broken meaning she would simply not be able to carry out any form of medical procedure.

Sakura and Hinata were silent with shock as they looked down at the broken mess that was Naruto. Whilst Sakura was doing her best to tend to Naruto, Hinata could only stand still in shock looking at her broken love.

"I'm running out of chakra… Naruto, don't give in…" Sakura said feebly.

Suddenly, Sakura found herself in an internal battle.

"LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE DONE SAKURA!" Inner Sakura said, with an 'I told you so' tone.

"What have I said in the past?" Sakura's conscience continued. "You constantly mistreat and hurt Naruto and then scream for him when you need help. Now look at the result of years of maltreatment. If Naruto was your pet, he would have run away a long time ago; but Naruto is better than that – better than you are. Your lack of power as a ninja is going to make Naruto suffer." Inner Sakura continued. "I used to implicitly support you no matter how bad things became, we were a great team Sakura. Yet, I hate to admit that there is some truth to Hinata's words. I will always be on your side Sakura, but you also need to know that Naruto has become a good friend to you and you need to treat you friends better." Inner Sakura finished.

"NOT NOW YOU DAMNED CONSCIENCE!" Sakura roared internally. "YOU DON'T THINK I KNOW THAT?! YOU DON'T THINK I KNOW THAT I CAUSE NARUTO PAIN?! OF COURSE I KNOW AND I AM SINCERELY SORRY BUT WHY IS EVERYONE GETTING ON MY CASE WHEN IT COMES TO NARUTO?! HAS ANYONE ELSE IN THE VILLAGE TREATED HIM BETTER?! ESPECIALLY WHEN WERE GROWING UP, APART FROM KAKASHI-SENSEI, SASUKE-KUN AND I WHO ELSE GAVE NARUTO RECOGNITION WITHOUT HIM HAVING TO EARN IT?!" Sakura screeched internally.

"Well Sakura, if we're going to be asking questions... who else hits Naruto and belittles him in front of our peers as much as you do? Besides, if everyone is pointing something out, then it is there." Inner Sakura said calmly, before dissolving into the background, leaving Sakura with much to ponder.

After a few minutes of silent reflection – whilst healing Naruto – Sakura concluded her thoughts.

"Hinata-san…" Sakura said quietly, "I'm so sorry, this was my fault. If I had treated Naruto better he wouldn't be in this situation. I've been doing this for years, treating Naruto badly and expecting him to absorb the punishment. I didn't realise how far I would go. I never intended to hurt my dear friend. I'm so sorry Hinata… I'm so sorry Naruto." Sakura finished. Tears started to fall freely down her face and land on Naruto's chest.

"Sakura-san… It was also my fault. It takes two to fight... Naruto suffered due to the both of us. I'm also sorry Sakura-san." Hinata sobbed. Sakura looked up at Hinata in shock and then turned back to Naruto.

Sakura could feel her strength waning.

Naruto's breathing started to drop even further.

It looked like the end.

"SAKURA! HINATA! NAR-" A familiar voice shouted out. Sakura and Hinata turned around and saw Kakashi, Captain Yamato and Shizune appear and land on the ground metres away from them. It seemed that the one who called out to them was Captain Yamato.

"Sensei…" Sakura said in despair.

Kakashi, Captain Yamato and Shizune looked at the grim scene and saw a still and lifeless Naruto on the ground. The three jounin immediately raced forward.

"We received reports from ANBU of a loud disturbance within the area. The ANBU reported this to the Hokage instead of coming here themselves due to past events – you know, invasion of Konoha by Orochimaru – and she decided to send the three of us over here." Kakashi said hurriedly.

"What happened to Naruto?" Shizune asked hurriedly.

No one responded.

"Let me see what I can do." Shizune said as she raced forward to Naruto.

Shizune bent down and leant over Naruto. She charged her hands up with chakra and started to heal him.

From what it looked like, Naruto was in bad shape, however her healing seemed to stabilise his condition. Nevertheless, Shizune knew that she needed to get Naruto back to the hospital.

"Kakashi-senpai, Naruto needs to go back to hospital, his condition is critical at the moment. He needs proper medical attention or else he will die." Shizune said worriedly.

"All right, let's go. Hinata and Sakura, when we get to the hospital, you two will need to heal up and then... you're going to tell me exactly what happened." Kakashi said in a menacing tone.

The three jounin with Hinata, Naruto and Sakura set off as quickly as possible to the hospital.

**Author's note:**

***Kunoichi is the correct Japanese term for a female ninja. Or at least, the term used in Naruto.**

**I have a big announcement to make. There is a reason why I took so long to update this chapter. It is because I am taking very important A-Level exams in the coming months and after much deliberation, I have come to the decision that I need to focus on my studies. Therefore this will be the last chapter for a few months. I am putting this story on HIATUS. I apologize for letting anyone down and if it's any comfort this has been a really tough decision but I need to focus on my future and I need to put myself first.**

**It will most likely resume in June/July, however it is possible that I may forget about the story and stop writing it (with all these commitments something may have to give). This however, is highly unlikely and I will most likely continue to write the story to the end.**

**Thank you so much for your patience and support regarding this fanfic. I hope you will rejoin me when I finish off the story in a few months time.**

**Follow and favourite the story so you know first-hand when the new chapter comes out.**

**Have a nice day and thank you again for your continued support, you guys are the best.**


End file.
